I took Logan to the local ice skating rink today. It was a halloween skate and the kids were supposed to come in costume.
Logan's costume this year is Joshua Cribbs, his favorite player on the Browns. Logan wears his Cribbs jersey, his browns helmet and his dreadlocks wig.
I think his mother said it was okay for him to use some brown face-paint. Logan has no real concept of race. A few years ago, he heard somebody talking about black people and he said, "I have two black friends."
My suburb is awesome for a lot of reasons, but racial diversity isn't one of them. I wasn't aware of any African Americans in his class, and so I was a little curious. I asked who the two friends were, and he said they were Rouch and Mohammed. Near as I can figure, Rouch is pakistani and Mohammed is Lebanese.
Recently, when referring to African Americans, I've heard him referring to them as "brown", which is technically more accurate than "black" but I've had to gently correct him by telling him that brown people are referred to as "black".
He gave me the look that says, "You adults really are stupid. Taking something very simple, like what to call brown people and deciding to call them a color that they clearly are not."
He got it, though.
In any event, he was wearing blackface, or in this case, brownface. I am virtually positive that his mother told him it was okay.
I debated whether to say something to him, and decided I had to talk to him about it for a few reasons. One of which is that he really stood a shot at offending somebody. The other is that if he went skating like that, I'd have been a bundle of nerves because I'd be afraid somebody would get pissed off at him and kick his ass.
So, I told him I needed to talk to him. I explained that I knew he didn't mean any harm, but that in the past, some very mean white people would put makeup on their face to make themselves look black. Then, they'd act foolish as a way to make fun of black people.
I explained because of this, if he wore black makeup, it could make some black people angry or hurt their feelings.
He had a bit of a lost look on his face as I was explaining. I could tell that he was a little bit hurt. I reinforced to him that I knew he didn't mean any harm. It wasn't him, or what he was doing. It was the bad behavior of some bad people in the past that caused the problem.
Of course, I was also envisioning myself on CNN explaining, "Really, my son isn't a racist. My family is not a racist family. I'm so sorry that we set off a chain of events that culimated in a month long race riot that eventually destroyed the entire industrial midwest."
I asked him what he thought we should do, and he said he wanted to take the makeup off because he didn't want to risk hurting anybody's feelings.
My son is the farthest possible thing from a racist. I honestly don't think he even fully understands the concept of race. It's just to him, some people have dark skin, others have lighter skin. In much the same way as some people have dark hair and other people have lighter hair.
He wanted to paint his face brown so he could look like Josh Cribbs because Josh Cribbs is his favorite football player. He wasn't doing it to cause anybody any sort of offense.
His mother, as well, doesn't have a racist bone in her body. She married and had a child with an Asian guy. I can vouch for her on this one. I'm a little surprised that she didn't see the potential problem with Logan painting his face, but I think she didn't think about it for the same reason he didn't: it just didn't occur to her that it could be offensive.
I was really glad Logan decided to take the makeup off. He ended up helping a little kid learn to skate. The kid was black. It would have been awkward, maybe not so much with the kid, but most certainly with his mother, if he had been wearing brown face paint to make himself look African American.
Mostly, as usual, I'm proud of the little guy. I explained the situation and he made the right call.
I think this generation is so much more enlightened than mine was. We still had a lot of racism back then, and I can truly say that throughout the course of my life, I've seen it diminish almost year by year.
By the time Logan has kids, maybe it'll be completely in the past. Or, more likely, it'll always be with us in one form or another, but will continue to be pushed deeper and deeper into the margins of society where it can impact fewer and fewer lives.
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