All posts tagged: racism

I’m not Racist, but…

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A few months ago, after my four thousandth reading of Pinkalicious, I closed the book, and thought, “Man. If I were an African-American father I would be disgusted by our book selection.” Pinkalicious. Vanilla Icing Icing Baby. Fancy Nancy. Frilly whitey. Biscuit Goes to the Farm (or does whatever). Yellow lab, white identity. Curious George. A monkey living in a white world. Ergo: white monkey. Hungry Little Caterpillar – a little white boy with an eating disorder. Clifford. Big red dog, little white girl. Where the Wild Things Are. White monsters. Dr. Seuss One fish, two fish, white kid, white kid. Goodnight Moon. Little white bunny and his old white granny whispering “hush” Harry Potter Even the “dark arts” wizards are white. (Thank goodness. Because awkward.) Lego’s are all white people, My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake couldn’t possibly be whiter. Sofia the First has a white character…once every 8 episodes when they’re running out of story lines for princess entitlement. And let’s not even touch the main Disney princesses (pre-Tiana, I suppose). (Alright, alright …

#ferguson #icantbreathe

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“So how do you feel about all this police business going on?” I kept a poker face. Quite a set-up. My partner and I visited his old family friends over the holidays. I asked “Don’t we need to call these people and let them know we’re coming?” “No, Gavin. It’s small-town Connecticut. We just drop in.” (I’d be livid if people interrupted my frenetic Christmas preparations.) The police question was popped by an 83-year-old man, a friend of my partner’s parents. I’ll call him “Big Al” and his wife, “Little Alice”. They’re salt-of-the-earth people. Big Al was a painter, by trade, Alice a stay-at-home mom (of 4 kids). And, by the way, they’re “all about” gays and kids.