Saturday, March 31, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
To My "Mix Breed-Mutt" Son: YOU'RE BEAUTY RUNS DEEP!
"Oh, so you're a mix breed, mutt," the man said to my four year old son at the park, as he discovered his biracial genetic background.
My son quickly replied and ran off, with a shrug of the shoulder, "I'm not a mutt, I'm Ryker!"Although he did not know it at the time, my son's egocentric reaction was a very weighted statement. Thankfully, only I knew what intentions and values were behind the words this man spoke. I hope this man understood the truth behind my son's words as well.
A child asks his mother, "why do they look at me like that mommy?" Her sweat filled palm grasps her sons tiny hand and she pulls him along the summer kissed road as the three men stare with a piercing silence. "But mommy, I don't like it" ... "I know baby, I will explain when we get home" ... As her footsteps land on the dusty road, each one lands with the weight of her truths.
She recalls the screams and the moans of her taunted childhood living in her southern state. She thinks to herself "how am I going to tell my baby he is one of many prejudged human beings alive, in his own home, America" Her tears begin to fall. "Mommy whats wrong?" She responds, "the truth baby, the truth"... 
The long walk home gave her visions of how the blood drips and slips into the tears of sorrows from the many people she has known living in the turmoil of hatred as her silence has always been a remedy. Today though, her silence is not enough because her son wants to understand why eyes can pierce and a gaze can violate his mere presence. How does this mother explain, guide, heal, and nurture the cries and the lies of our history running together to make uncertain truths wide awake dreams about hatred only to leave nightmares for the living? How does she explain that people hate, just because, they do? She grapples on what she will say when he continues to ask why because his innocence has only been threatened thus far. How does she intervene so that his unforeseen yet guaranteed traumas will not transform into hatred as well? Like the weight of the world her footsteps are heavy on this walk home because in her almost 30 years of living she still cannot rationally explain, why. Why do they hate the skin we are in?
While looking for the answer she found her self looking at the question...Supporting Biracial Childen's Identity Development
Interracial families and the racial identification of mixed-race children: Evidence from the early childhood longitudinal study
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Social interactions and emotions
Does this mean social cues outweigh cognitive cues and the infant values the perspective of the caregiver over her own? It appears to me the baby is hesitant indicating some statistical knowledge of the dangers of the visual cliff, but ignores this when mom gives a positive response.
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