READING POSTS FROM A FEW MUMMY BLOGGERS THIS WEEK, THE SUBJECT OF RACIST BULLYING SEEMED TO COME UP A LOT. A BLACK TEENAGER WHO RETALIATED WHEN SHE WAS CALLED THE ‘N’ WORD AND THE SCHOOL/ POLICE’S UNEQUAL RESPONSE. A MUM WHOSE MIXED RACE DAUGHTER WAS ASKED (TWICE IN ONE WEEK) IF SHE WAS ADOPTED AND “IS THAT YOUR REAL MUM” BECAUSE SHE HAS DARK SKIN.
Real racism or blatant bullying hasn’t happened to my kids yet. But I’ve witnessed hints of kids becoming ‘aware’ of difference. At 4 years old, I can see the children already noticing skin colour and how it relates to them and their friends.
Children noticing difference and singling out other kids for looking or acting a certain way is nothing new. I remember being picked on and even doing the picking- for all sorts of things: glasses, red hair, short, fat, hairy, long nose, short nose, names… the list goes on. But what I don’t remember and what I’ve never had to experience is racist comments about skin colour.
Though I was born into a mixed family, my father a milk chocolate colour, I am by far the lightest in my family- easily able to pass as white. I could float between my identities at will, embracing more of my Iranian background as I grew older but wanting nothing to do with anything foreign in my pre-teen years. True, my name often gave me away but I was able to shorten it to a westernised version that allowed me to pass.
So I’m new to this territory. I remember when my daughter was barely 1 year old and my husband and I had taken her to a local park in a very white middle class area. A child came up to her and stuck his tongue out, then tried to tell her she couldn’t come to the part of the climbing frame where he was. Perhaps we were sensitive as new parents but I remember feeling rage at the other child for excluding her or being mean to her. She was oblivious of course, as most babies would be. But looking around the park with so many white children and their blue-eyed- blonde- haired parents in groups, it played into the feeling we already had of feeling isolated and sensitive to a world that might judge our beautiful child on the basis of her skin.
Like any mother I desperately want to protect my children. I don’t want to be over sensitive but why then does racist bullying hurt so much more than just plain bullying?
My guess is it’s because we know it won’t end when the children grow up and realise glasses can be cool, being short is pretty common and having a different name isn’t something to make fun of someone for. Most people grow out of bullying. But racism is something that will and can continue for a lifetime. It may take a different form but the hurt caused whether you’re in the playground or grown up and working can be just as painful.
So to have it start at such an early age is heartbreaking. Because if you’ve given them the best start, you know they’re confident, even proud of who they are, soon, very soon, they’ll understand not everyone thinks that way.
I do realise that nothing could happen as many mixed friends can recount not having encountered any negative experience because of their skin colour. If so, my daughters may just escape the large chip many of we and many generations before us have been forced to carry and have a pretty good shot at happiness.
But if comments do happen, I’m hope I’m ready for it. Ready to maintain my cool and hold down the rage that I can imagine I’ll feel at even the slightest hint of racist bullying. I hope I can talk to my daughter about how and why it happened, how it made her feel and how some people may see things that way. What I hope more than anything though is that if it does happen, my daughters will be secure enough in who they are to be able to dismiss such comments as they would any other.
Is there any way a parent can prepare for when their child gets bullied? Perhaps not. I can’t do anything about the way the world sees her, but I hope I can be a positive influence in the way she sees herself.
Post was first published on Fariba's blog http://www.mixedracefamily.com/