My step-daughter Kay seems to be oblivious to the fact that as a Black person I am protective of other Black people. We ban together in much the same way that we did when OJ was accused of murder or Michael Jackson was accused of raping a child. We stand by our own. We were getting off the elevator of our apartment when Kay announced to me that she had spent the earlier part of the day at a roller skating rink. "The only problem is that there were Black people there" she announces this in the same way she does her preference for chocolate ice cream over vanilla. "And what's wrong with there being Black people?" I try to temper my reaction so that I don't alert her to my concern. "It's just that there were so many of them." "Oh you don't like that there were a lot of Black people?" I ask much nicer than I feel. "No, I don't like Black people."
"I don't mean you, it's the other Blacks I don't want to be around" she says in the serious way only a ten year old can. I glance over my shoulder at my husband. "Honey, let my tell you what Kay just said and I proceed to retell the story. His white face is turning beet red since he's super colorless and wants to believe that we are teaching our children to be free of color issues.
"Kay, you said you didn't like Black people?" "Well, I don't mean Stephanie. They are too loud and they do bad things like write graffitti and they mess up things." And his red face turns a shade of purple especially since I'm giving him that Black woman scowl. He grew up in Canada and still can't believe especially in the Obama error that racism isn't a thing of the past.
"So, you don't like black people because they're in a group?" "Yeah, I don't like them. "But white people write graffitti and talk loud too."
I think of my 9 year old daughter who she loves and realizes that to Kay we are divided into good Black people while most of Black people are bad. I listen to my husband trying to fix his daughters burgeoning racism and although I know that she loves me, I'm not so sure I want to be that special kind of Black person.
