Saturday, 30 November 2019

My 6 year old daughter says she does not want to be black. How do we address this without making it worse?


I have 4 young kids. 6 year old boy/girl twins, 2 year old boy, and a 4 month old daughter. The twins are in first grade. I am black and my husband is white.My 6 year old daughter is super intelligent but immature. She is in the highest reading and math groups, but is a wallflower and struggles to make and maintain friendships. Anywho, she brought home a picture that she drew earlier in the school year. The kids were told to draw a picture of their family. She used the peach crayon for her and her dad, the brown crayon for her brothers and sister, and the black crayon for me. I asked her why she drew herself differently than her siblings and she said it's because she isn't black like them. All of the kids are about the same color. If anything the baby is the most white passing. I told her that she's half black and half white and she said that she knows that but she doesn't like the black part. I asked her why and she said she doesn't feel like she's black. I asked her what that meant and reminded her that black people come in all different shades, from various ways of life, and have different interest. She said she knew but still doesn't like the black part.I'm not sure what to do. I think we talk about race the average amount for an interracial family. It is not a daily topic of conversation but some race related topic comes up at least a few times a week. All 4 of the kids have names inspired by historical figures and 3 of those names were inspired by prominent black activist. We have talked a bit about slavery and the civil rights movement with the twins. They both know why they have the names they have. We do live in a majority white suburb in the New England region but the kids see my family and have a good relationship with my sister.Where are we messing up and how do I fix this before she becomes a self hating black person? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2qZRSqS

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