All three of our kids wanted to join the local recreation center youth basketball teams. Our two sons were put on the same team. George did not want to have Steve on his team. When I asked him why and he said that he just did not want to have to explain why his brother is white and he is not. You would think that after all this time he would be over this but he just says he does not want to answer any more people because it is none of their business. He is right it is none of anyone’s business how our family looks.
When it came to my daughters team it consisted of one Caucasian girl (Rebecca was the only Caucasian girl) and the rest were African American. After her first practice I asked her how she was feeling and she said that she felt a weird being the only white girl on her team. She actually said she wanted to quit. I asked her when she looked at her brother George what she saw. She replied I just see George the brother that I love. I said when you look at those girls on your team what do you see? I asked her if she gave them time to show her their insides or if she just stopped at what she saw on the outside. She stopped where she was and admitted she never thought of it that way.
I told her before I agreed to let her quit she had to think of it if she was stopping on the surface or if she wanted to give it a try to see what the girls were like inside. I was so proud of her the next day when she woke up and asked me when her next practice was because she wanted to stay on the team. When I asked her why she changed her mind she said that she realized she was not being fair to the other girls and she would not them looking at her and judging her just by her skin color. A 9 year old can get why can’t grown-ups?