The sprinkler park is pretty close to our church so we packed all our bathing suits this morning and headed there right after church. The boys had such a blast (even though Caleb got stung 2x by a wasp). I gave Addie her first whole chicky nugget and she was entertained for a long time.
While Michael was playing with the boys on the play structure and Addie and I were lounging, there was a group of people very close by and one woman was talking loudly, I unfortunately heard her conversation. She was talking all this smack about how there so many Indian people in the area and on and on with lots of other racial ignorances (I know I just made that phrase up but it seems right). It was one of those strange moments where I wanted to say something but a. she wasn't talking to me and b. her comments were ridiculous but subtle. I ended up walking away from the area because I couldn't handle it anymore. Later I was thinking about how most of the time when people make racial comments it's pretty subtle. I feel like I need to be prepared by having a good response. Like when crazy lady says: "There are just so many Indians around, the whole neighborhood has dark skin" or "They don't even speak English well" or "Canton's becoming like Dearborn." Now that those comments are written, I guess they really aren't subtle. Any ideas out there about how to respond to blatant or subtle racial comments?
It looks like this is the only shirt Addie has. She does have others. But it is a fav of mine:)
ReplyDeleteAsk the woman, "are you preparing to go to Hell or Heaven? Because if you are preparing for Heaven, you better be prepared for ultra diversity, as 'every tribe, tongue and nation' will give praise to our Lord. If you don't like diversity, than you are preparing for Hell, where you will experience the epitome of a homogeneous racial and cultural existence.....complete isolation from God and all other human being....just you and you alone....no more need to worry about shades of skin color....there will only be one - yours" See what she says to that.
ReplyDeleteMichael, I guess that's why God had Lauren overhear the conversation and not you. I can see the headlines now "Fight breaks out at sprinkler park!" No actually, you go get her!
ReplyDeleteThe awesome/scary/crazy/great part is that Michael would have really said that. It oddly diffuses the situation most of the time because people just stare at him like "did he really just say that to me?"
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a good answer for raising people's racial IQ (I made that one up).