Colored People

“Mommy, why is my sister white and I’m black?”

“Mommy, why is the baby’s bottom white?”

Yep, my big girl has become very color observant. Interestingly enough, there are only two colors - - white and black. So everyone has to fit into those two categories. Most of the people she has pointed out to me as white haven’t been white. She reminds me of a story Melody told me about her college friend, Kim, who for a while thought Melody was white because she knew for sure Mel wasn’t black like her so what did that leave. That story makes me laugh because Mel is multiracial, but mostly Native American, and I’m not sure how Kim missed that. Or even as Mel has gotten so often gotten mistaken for, Hispanic, Kim didn’t come up with that scenario. Maybe there weren’t too many Hispanics in Louisiana.

How to answer Rowan’s questions?

“Your sister isn’t white. God gave people more pigmentation than other people. You have more than the baby.”

“On the spectrum of brown, your sister is on the fairer end.”

“Everyone is different colors. Your sister is fairer than you, but you are fairer than Mommy, Jory, and Oma.”

“Why does the baby have long hair and I don’t? Is it because she’s white?”

Your sister’s hair should be longer and you don’t have long hair because God is protecting you both from me murdering you two. You both hate getting your hair washed, combed, brushed, or fixed now, how in the world would the two of you act if you had more hair? “Some people have longer hair than others.”

So interesting, Jory has never had questions about skin color. Never once brought it up. He obviously notices but maybe it’s his personality or maybe it’s him being a boy or both, but not a bleep from him about it all. And not a bleep from the baby about it either.

On Sunday she asked Jamie if Blake was hers. Jamie answered, yes.

“But why are you a different color than he is?” Rowan countered.

Jamie nicely and simply explained the skin color difference to Rowan and assured her that she was indeed Blake’s mommy.

It’s interesting that she notices different colored mommies and babies, yet doesn’t see Layla and I as part of that group.

I don’t want to skirt around Rowan’s question, but I want rear her with a Godly perspective on color. When she asks questions, the DC Talk song, Colored People, runs through my head.

Pardon me, your epidermis is showing miss
I couldn’t help but notice your shade of melanin
I tip my hat to the colorful arrangement
Cause I see the beauty in the tones of our skin

We've gotta come together
And thank the Maker of us all

We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace

A piece of canvas is only the beginning for
It takes on character with every loving stroke
This thing of beauty is the passion of an Artist's heart
By God's design, we are a skin kaleidoscope

We've gotta come together,
Aren't we all human after all?

Ignorance has wronged some races
And vengeance is the Lord's
If we aspire to share this space
Repentance is the cure

[1, 1, 1, 1... 2, 2, 2, 2... 3, 3, 3, 3... 4, 4, 4, 4]

Well, just a day in the shoes of a color blind man
Should make it easy for you to see
That these diverse tones do more than cover our bones
As a part of our anatomy

We're colored people, and they call us the human race
[Oh, colored people]
We're colored people, and we all gotta share this space
[Yeah we've got to come together somehow]
We're colored people, and we live in a tainted world
[Red and yellow, black and white]
We're colored people, every man, woman, boy, and girl
[Colored people, colored people, colored people, colored people, yeah]