King Martin Junior

Today my 5 year old said..."How many days until King Martin Junior day?"

I told her it was yesterday.

She said, "But we didn't do anything special."

I assume she is referring to the gifts of Jesusmas or perhaps the overblown meal of Thanksgiving. Now I'm feeling a little guilty about our lack of Festivus for King Martin Junior.

Truth be told we did go bowling yesterday, though I'm not sure there's any significance there. On Sunday we did have a small talk in the car about our skin color...and when she asked what color we were and I said we were white, she observed we're kind of yellow and pink. And I agreed.

Our neighbors are the only diverse people in our neighborhood (unless you count the smelly and nasty family down the street....they're different, but I'm not sure they're diverse). Not only is their house painted a very non comformist (and extremely ugly) combination of Urine Yellow and Shit Brown, they're also the only white lesbian senior citizen couple with black grandchildren, I have ever lived next door to.

Granted I live outside Detroit and we're still reeling from the effects of urban flight.

I love that she doesn't notice the horrendously bad taste of our neighbors with the sewage colored house. She doesn't question that they have two grandmothers living in the same house...she just calls them "Sarah's Gramma's"

I love that she notices the different color of Sarah's skin, but it really has no meaning beyond a descriptive sense.

I only hope I can preserve that for the next 10 years and by then everything will be firmly planted into her psyche.

Maybe by then we'll be living next to lots of different colored people with lots of different colored families and lots of different nasty sewage colored houses....scratch the last part.

I hope that someday, my daughter doesn't think of 'diversity' as a plus or a goal, but simply a reality of her life.

Comments

[Pants]

Good entry. Strong finish.

[Emily]

I think with you teaching her Melissa...she is ok.Great entry.

[Courtnee]

Love it. Just love it.

[Jeff]

I live in suburban Detroit (Farmington Hills, to be precise), and I'd be willing to bet my neighborhood is one of the most diverse in the country. I'd say it's about 35% white, 35% black, 15% middle eastern, 10% indian, and 5% asian. And it's a relatively new (late 90s), upper-middle-class subdivision.

I know Detroit is the poster child for white flight (and I know Detroit is probably more overwhelmingly black than any other major city), but there is true diversity in many suburbs.