Weighty Matters
I actually have something serious to say. Not anything long and laborious, but something beyond my usual inane rambles.
I know, as in intellectually understand, that the USA is a white man’s world. I’ve seen racism happen. I’ve been guilty of thinking things I didn’t want to think. I would hope that I am a more enlightened person than I was ten years ago or even a year ago or even a month ago. I continually strive to improve myself and my attitudes and learn new things about how the world works. I am a fan of progress and change if it means it helps people live a better life.
Last year my black friend was complaining because she picked up her kid’s birthday cake and it had a white kid in the decorations. She wasn’t mad, just grumpy. She wished her son would have had a birthday kid on the cake that looked like him. I get it.
So today I was going shopping for a new baby gift and card. Almost every single baby card had a picture of a little white, baldish/blonde baby. I found ONE card that didn’t have a picture of a baby at all. I wasn’t at a store with a great selection, but still. They couldn’t have had one card with a cute little brown baby? The card is for my Indian neighbor. I bought the card with no baby picture because it would have been weird to buy a card with a typical white Gerber baby. I don’t know if they would have been offended, but it just would have felt stupid to me because it is not an accurate representation of their baby.
I also need to get a gift for my cousin, who recently adopted a toddler from Korea. I am way, way behind in doing this because they don’t need or want clothes and I wanted to do something special. I was thinking of getting her a doll, but guess what? Either I don’t know how to search or it is next to impossible to find an Asian based baby doll*. I live in a hugely diverse area so I thought maybe I could pick something up at the store, but I had zero luck.
I have a baby doll quilt already made that just needs a binding, so I thought about giving that to her but then I looked at all the dolls and they were all vintage blondes with super pale skin. I think there might have been a brunette, but her skin was paper white as well.
I know most of you are going DUH! Obviously I have heard these complaints before and knew it was a problem, but I’ve never personally been on a quest to buy a product for a child of color and didn’t realize just how frustrating it really was. When do you compromise? Why should they or their parents have to compromise?
I don’t know what to do about any of this and I am certainly not writing anything you didn’t already know, but that’s what I’ve been thinking about today. It just really sucks and I wish there wasn’t such a thing as white privilege. I know I benefit from it every day in ways I can’t even imagine.
Related: anyone have a super simple quilt idea that is special and possibly Korean related, but could be completed with very little work? I’m thinking strip piecing.
Also, who has a book recommendation for a picture book that explains evolution to a five year old?
We finally got our book order today with three books I’ve been wanting. A Better Homes and Gardens low fat cookbook, the newest Carol Berg and the newest Katherine Kerr. Now I need to find a low cholesterol** crock-pot cookbook. With Mike getting home at 7 pm or later and the kids going insane right around 5 pm until he gets home, our dinner time is becoming unacceptable. I’m way too tired to cook by the time he gets home and I’m usually cranky, too boot.
*Turns out I didn’t know how to search. I don’t know why I couldn’t find any the other day, but I found several just now.
**The doctor told him to go vegan, but he is not giving up his meat. I am eliminating dairy as much as possible, along with eggs. The majority of my recipes rely on cheese or sour cream, so it is quite an adjustment. I am really glad that I can use olive oil. The first cookbook I was using didn’t use any fat other than baking spray and it was killing me.
bethany actually said,
February 8, 2011 @ 11:02 pm
I live right by Koreatown! If you end up coming here to look for a present, lemme know, I’ll have you over for lunch. 🙂
bethany actually said,
February 8, 2011 @ 11:04 pm
Also, thinking further on this topic: I grew up in a part of Omaha where white people were, if not a minority, then only barely the majority. At stores in my parents’ neighborhood it was always easy to find white or black baby dolls, cards with babies of different races on them, etc.
Liz said,
February 8, 2011 @ 11:47 pm
Hi. Long time reader, first comment.
I feel so bad for you doing that low-cholesterol diet. It’s so not fun! Many doctors are behind the times, but current thinking is more and more that dietary cholesterol has little effect on one’s cholesterol levels.
Here’s a link to an article at Huffington Post about how eggs have been found to have less cholesterol than originally thought. The doctor who wrote the article goes on to talk about how low-cholesterol diets are over-rated. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-katz-md/usda-eggs-cholesterol_b_820497.html
Here’s a link to another article:
http://drcate.com/how-starting-a-low-cholesterol-diet-leads-to-problems/
Low-cholesterol diets made my cholesterol levels worse. Low-carb worked for me!
Antropologa said,
February 9, 2011 @ 1:38 am
This race question is interesting. It does depend where you are. In pockets of Atlanta I remember that white-kid stuff was definitely the minority. We had Asian markets and whatnot, too.
We have some book from MY childhood about dinosaurs that pretty well covers evolution.
Tree of Knowledge said,
February 9, 2011 @ 12:35 pm
Do you read Skepchick or PZ Meyers? I think they both have mentioned kids evolution books at some point. A search led me to these two posts by PZ:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/01/kids_books.php
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/02/evolution_how_we_and_all_livin.php