Where's Santa?!

At age three Babe and I started talking to Nas about race, his in particular. We are African-American and because of the barrage of negative images we see and hear on television of Black people I, especially, find it vital that we teach our kids to love who they are and our ancestors. If you are not African-American it may not occur to you that teaching Black children about their heritage is a bit tricky, we can only teach our kids a little at a time because you can't just drop the slavery bomb on a 3-year-old. So for our little guy, we just started by telling him he is in fact Black.

Now this backfired. You can't tell a child he is Black and think he'll use his black Crayola crayon and NOT get confused. He is indeed brown so why, in his mind, would I tell him he's Black?! After some thought I could see the value in the new "PC" terminology of African-American. That seemed to make more sense to him. Jackpot! Thankfully he, now five years old, understands when we use African-American and Black interchangably at home. Afterall, I'm 31 and didn't grow up calling myself "African-American" so it's a little new to me.

It seems since then he is keenly aware of race and how he fits into the spectrum. At the same time he wonders why there isn't an African-American equivalent of EVERYTHING. This December, at Christmas, he wonders where we can find Black Santa. This is a tricky one because we live in Colorado. Don't get me wrong, we have a decent population of Black...er, African-Americans, but we are definitely spread throughout the area. We live in an area where we see people who look like us, but not in an abundance. You better believe the Santa the kids in our area give their list to is as White as his beard.

In a time when we can watch CNN and see a Black man speaking from the White House I know it makes sense that my son would expect to see a version of "himself" in everything he takes interest in: superheroes (can we GET one?!), athletes, police officers, teachers, fire fighters, and yes, Santa. Nas seems far more aware of 'color' than his older sister ever has, but I think this is a good thing - a very good thing.

If we pretend race doesn't matter our kids will likely get the shock of their lives as adults and I'd rather he ask me age-appropriate questions, like the one about Black Santa, now than have him thinking ALL people in America love us the way WE love us. I don't care what color/race/ethnicity you see in the mirror, teach your kids to love themselves for who they are and those who came before them. Not that they are BETTER than anyone else based on what they look like, that's a disaster waiting to happen, but a child must love himself before he can love anyone else.

If you don't teach your child to love himself, who on earth will?!