Revelations On St. Patrick's Day

Well, last week was St. Patrick's Day. Being that no one in mine or Vader's family is Irish or Catholic, it gets pretty much ignored at our house. So, in keeping with tradition, St. Paddy's Day was Tuesday as usual in the J household. We don't even bother wearing green, why would we....see above.

Poor D came home with stories of children being pinched for not wearing green (luckily he didn't or else the principal and I would be having another lovely chat) and he just couldn't understand why that would happen. I told him that was so tacky and I couldn't explain why that would happen either, for goodness sakes, even the people I know that wear green and celebrate the day don't know what St. Patrick is the patron Saint of. So anyway, in the midst of my explanation and why we don't wear green or celebrate the day, (which maybe I would celebrate the day if I knew what fantastically wonderful thing St. Patrick did for all of humanity) he wanted to know where his ancestors were from. A agreed, she knew some, but she wanted to know more. It was wonderful, my kids, wanting to know about their history.

So, first I explained that they are a little more than 1/4 Dutch. A adds, "From you, right mommy?" I say, "Correct A", she's so clever. Then I explain that they are both 1/2 African. Holy shit, stop the presses! D yells at me, "Whaaat?!" Covers his mouth, bouncing around in his booster seat, extreme joy coming from every pore of his body. He's thrilled, he's excited, he's totally feelin' his roots. He shouts at me again, "FROM WHO!!!!?" Now, it's very hard to keep a straight face, but god, you gotta love the innocence of this kid, he's frickin' clueless. He looks excitedly over at his sister, who to her credit is keeping a straight face and being very nice, and loudly whispers to her, "Can you believe this?!" He starts clapping as I tell him that he's African through his dad's side of the family. His response, just this, "Wow!", in utter awe. (To you Readers who know Vader and may not have noticed, as my son clearly hasn't.....Vader is black.)



For some reason my children have a very different view of race than I or really anyone expect from them. I think for Vader and I, we know that there are other points of view out there, but we don't really notice them and certainly don't focus on them. Our relationship is based on so many other things besides color, that our kids have picked it up and see absolutely everyone as equals in every way. I feel lucky that we have a very normal, perfectly happy life without serious complications that other couples in our situation had even 20-30 years ago. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be writing about some of the other issues my children have had learning about race, it's interesting and honestly, funny. You wouldn't think that a mixed race household would have complications explaining about race to their children...unfortunately, I think it's really that we're having to teach them that where they see no differences, others do. In a way, that's kind of sad.