Our family travels to the Washington DC area frequently. My husband’s brother lives in the area, so we love to stay in their home and tour our nation’s capital. When my son was 3, we ended up in DC one weekend. My brother-in-law mentioned that the exhibit honoring Martin Luther King, Jr was newly completed and on display. What he didn’t know was that this was the exact day of the dedication of that monument. When we got to the monument, it was crawling with people to honor his life and his sacrifice and the good he did for our people. Most of these people were African Americans, paying tribute to one who did so much for the civil rights movement. My son could pick up on the energy in the area.
He needs no help when it comes to energy, he was endowed with an overabundance of it. As he skipped and jumped on his approach to the monument, and with the only volume level his voice knows, he started yelling, “Mom, who’s that big white guy?” “I see a big WHITE man. He’s really WHITE!” I quietly tried to explain who he was and what he did. He continued in his loudest voice, “A big, huge WHITE GUY! A good WHITE guy. Dad! Look at the White guy!” He would not let the phrase go.
Now, I know that the monument was made white as a symbol for not seeing color or race and that everyone is equal. But for a 3-year-old, it really is the monument of a white guy. With all of our fellow American’s without ‘white’ skin around, I was very uncomfortable and embarrassed with my son constantly pointing out the color of Martin Luther King Jr. For all our trying we couldn’t get him to pipe down.
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1 Comment
Hahaha! That is hilarious