Like most parents, we look at him and wonder how we created this beautiful little boy. Like many mothers, I look at him and think "How did that come out of ME?!?!" But as I ask that question in awe, I also ask it in...sheer curiousity. I am mixed. And brown. And this boy is PINK.
PINK to the point of potentially having red hair. (Not sure how long it will last, but we can see it now!)
My mother married a man with dominant genes and it appears I have done the same.
My boy is beautiful, but there is nothing like looking down at this child that came out of me and seeing, at least at present, NOTHING of me. Jeff swears that he has my eyes, and he might, but I don't see it just yet. I was swaddling him the other day and saw these brown hands wrapping this white child and for a moment disassociated with MY child and felt a bit like...the Help. But he's MINE. He came out of ME. It's just that for the moment, he doesn't LOOK like me...
Yes, people may think I am the nanny. And a part of me is actually WAITING for someone to make that mistake. I'm working on a proper comeback. But then again, this may not happen to me as, in this day and age, interracial marriage is at a record high: 1 in 12 smug marrieds are interracial(!) How fantastic is that?
It makes me think of how a friend of mine came to visit me here in New York around ten years ago with her then 1 year old son. She was part of an interracial couple and was living in Western Massachusetts. She asked me "Do you see a lot of mixed couples here in the city?" I was left to respond with the truth as I had seen it at the time: "It's almost weird when you see a same race couple here. It's almost as if all the couples are mixed."
I feel very lucky to be in this city and in our well mixed neighborhood.
And I hope other mixed couples and families across the country can feel as comfortable where they are as our population grows.
KEEP PAYING ATTENTION!
Peace --Alex
posted by funkweee @ 10:58 PM
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