I received an email from my niece today asking if people in Ethiopia have brown skin. I love people that have straightforward questions! Yes, they do! I went on to explain a bit about melanin and brown skin.
I'm glad she's not color blind. I feel this way because I believe I was color blind or had hoped to be color blind prior to embarking on a transracial adoption. I just didn't think it mattered. It sure didn't matter to me how light or dark my child's skin color would be. I've surely seen enough in my life to want to believe it doesn't matter as much as being healthy and living a good life. However, anyone with tan or brown skin color will tell you that differences in skin color do exist (and thus, a difference in how people will interact with you on a daily basis). Brown skinned people live with the difference in their appearance on a daily basis. To discredit this difference, is to discredit them as a person. If we don't acknowledge that there is a difference, (I believe) we're not acknowledging all of who they are.
Still don't understand what I'm trying to say about being color blind? I would love to have a conversation about it. Or, disagree? I want to know your opinion!
3 comments:
I believe when children are young, they are not color vocused. They see the color, it just doesn't make a difference. The world has not persuaded them to see the color. They may ask or comment about the color but to them it's like hair or eye color, curly or straight. It doesn't make a difference, it just is. A childs view, is a purely perfect outlook... Jill
yes, too bad we can't all just stay that way
It is true of everyone that people just want validation of their own personal story/history. No matter what that story is.
Listening and allowing people to express how they feel they are treated because of their brown skin, curly hair, less than perfect body, being raised a certain religion, being raised by single/divorced/married parents, money or lack of it...all of these factors and many more form who we are and how we view things/cope.
The common denominator is that everyone simply craves to be heard on how they personaly overcame or dealt with these things in their experiences of everyday life, with out judgement...
I think
Laurie
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