Why you shouldn’t teach your kids to be colorblind
Have you ever heard someone say they’re colorblind?
I’m not talking about the inability to distinguish between red and green, I’m talking about the people who claim they don’t notice racial or ethnic differences.
I beg to differ.
My husband, my daughter and I are white, and my two boys are Chinese. Our family was formed through adoption. Although adopting our boys was very deliberate, my husband and I didn’t give much real consideration to what parenting kids of a different ethnicity would be like day-to-day.
We thought we were well-prepared. Our pre-adoption education covered parenting children of other races and stressed the importance of learning to accept and embrace another culture. No manual can really prepare you, though. Sometimes, it’s complicated. We hear things like:
“We don’t see color”
“People are just people…I don’t notice race.”
The people saying such bone-headed things are usually well-intentioned. Still, I respond to comments like these by hoisting the BS flag. We all notice racial differences…of course we do. We may react to these differences differently, but we all notice. It’s the rare person who’s truly colorblind and honestly, I’m skeptical of those who say they are.
[Tweet “I'm skeptical of anyone who claims to “not see color.” No one is colorblind”]
Our family is sometimes treated differently. It can be subtle, but I notice, even though I sometimes pretend I don’t. We get stared at more than your average family when we’re out and about. Sometimes, strangers ask questions about our family makeup, like if I’m the babysitter or if my husband is Asian. Our family is the subject of curiosity and on the receiving end of stares in ways that families who “match” don't have to deal with. I’m guessing white moms with white kids probably don’t get asked about genetics at the supermarket. Black moms with black kids probably don’t get the “where’d you get him” question very often.
While nosy adults annoy me, curious children are something different. Yes, sometimes a curious child comes off as annoying or obnoxious but that’s usually due to my state of mind, mood or caffeine levels rather than any ill intentions on the child’s part. I remember this one time when a little boy in a store tried to initiate a conversation with me about why my son’s eyes were shaped differently than his. He was probably just old enough to understand that we inherit things like eye color and hair texture from our parents. He was trying to process information by asking questions, because that’s what kids do.
I started to give this boy a simple explanation on Asian physical traits when his embarrassed mom halted the conversation by shushing him and apologizing to me without making eye contact. She seemed uncomfortable that her child was drawing attention to our family's differences. I wasn’t uncomfortable with it.
My kids have already been stereotyped. They'll probably always be the victims of some stereotyping. Like any mom, I’m totally convinced my kids are brilliant, but it’s a little weird when someone else assumes it because of ethnicity, for example: “Chinese kids are so smart, aren’t they? He’s going to get really good grades!”
While I hope the part about the grades will be true, what if my kids break the stereotype? What if they want to play football or basketball? What if they struggle academically? What happens when they don’t fit someone’s preconceived notion of what a Chinese boy should be?
There may come a day when my kids will get picked on because of the shape of their eyes or the color of their skin. I worry that I’m ill-equipped to prepare them for discrimination because I don’t know what that feels like first-hand. But I think I’ve experienced enough of life to be confident I can guide my kids through things that haven’t happened to me personally.
Although it seems strange that my sons will grow up having to put the “race/ethnicity” checkmark in a different box on their job applications than my daughter will, we work to find ways to embrace the multicultural aspect of our family. We’ve taken some time to learn about Chinese culture and have learned about some different holiday celebrations and tried to incorporate them in to our family traditions.
As the boys get older, we may seek out more opportunities for them to interact and connect with other people they could racially identify with. We’ll try to strike the right balance of acknowledging our family diversity and giving our boys what they show us they want and need. And, like any family, we’ll figure out the rest as we go along.
[Tweet “No one is color blind and here's why that's a good thing”]
Dno't aspire to teach your kids to be color blind. Don't make it a goal to pretend difference aren't there. Acknowledge them. Learn about them. Celebrate them. Teach your kids to be good humans and hope that everything else falls in to place.
I’m not sure if I can prepare my kids for the discrimination they may face. Can anyone prepare kids for that, really? But I can teach them that racism is all about people being afraid of what they don’t know, and that’s at least a starting point. One thing I am sure of is that I can be a strong, tuned-in, self-aware woman who will always be there to hold my kids’ hands as they navigate through the parts of life that will sometimes just suck. Regardless of color, that’s what being a mom is about.
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“One thing I am sure of is that I can be a strong, tuned-in, self-aware woman who will always be there to hold my kids’ hands as they navigate through the parts of life that will sometimes just suck. Regardless of color, that’s what being a mom is about.”– YEP!
YES! So much this. We’re a mixed-ethnic family ova hea! Similar issues as my kids are considered “brown” – half Middle Eastern. They have “ethnic” names. People – pls don’t tell me your colorblind – that just makes you sound absurd. Tell me you see differences, and celebrate them.
Finally! I’m always suspicious of people who say that. They seem to think it makes them seem less racist, but it’s just as bad as saying you have black friends. If you don’t see color, then how can you see the injustice unique to people of color?
Yes! I found myself nodding along as I read. And there are the people who claim to be ‘colorblind’ but then assume that two of my foster kids are biologically related because they are black…these people bother me a lot more than the people like the little old lady at church who keeps asking if we ‘got our kids from all around the world’.