I remember that as a child I was always getting miffed because I couldn't find the "peach" crayon. In Middle School I got a really awesome Prang Coloring Set the colored pencils had a nice, peachy-flesh colored one. I used it nearly all the way out. But not Deedle. And it makes me so happy. It honestly wouldn't have dawned on me as a kid to just go ahead and color one of the people with brown skin. My parents are absolutely not racist and we actually did have probably more experiences than a lot of children in our area with people of varying colored skin playing roles in our lives. But still...people were always peach-ish to me.
I may have shared this before, but I don't remember. When Deedle was about 2.5 years and Loumy was 18 months or so, we were driving in the car. At the time I drove our Jeep Cherokee and had 3 car seats shoved side by side in the back. One day Deedle was asking me about the different eye colors in our family. It went something like this:
Deedle: Mom, do you have blue eyes?
Me: Nope. Mine are brown.
Deedle: Mom has brown eyes. Loumy has brown eyes. What about Dad?
Me: Dad's eyes are blue like yours.
Deedle: Dad has blue eyes. I have blue eyes. SC has blue eyes...(then a long pause...I notice that Deedle is checking out her little, milky-white legs sticking out in front of her in her seat next to Loumy's. She then says slowly...)....and Loumy has...brown...legs.
Her voice was completely innocent and and interested, too, like this was the very first time she had noticed that they had a different skin color. Her tone was, "Hm! Isn't that interesting?!"
So, that's all. Just wanted to let you know that it makes me happy that to Deedle skin color is just like eye color or hair color. And when she's looking for the right marker or crayon, she'll just choose whichever one she thinks might look right for that drawing. Cool, huh?
3 comments:
THIS WAS PROBABLY ONE OF MY MOST FAVORITE POSTS OF YOUR BLOG EVER!!!!
You know how I just love fonts and pens and crayons and all that, well, I was so happy one time to find a Crayola Marker set that was called Fleshtones and it was all sorts of different peaches and pinks and a myriad of browns and blacks. It was my favorite set for the longest time. But then the markers dried up and I have yet to find a smiliar set since. However, on Pioneer Woman a while back she spotlighted some special colored pencils that she loves for this very reason and I have been really wanting them since. Perhaps you should buy them for Deedle. Here is the link to her post so you can see it too:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/2009/12/people-colors/
And, to be honest, I greatly prefer the skin tone of Jack to Jill's vibrant yellow. Heehee. But, you are right, it makes me sad to think how much acceptance and innocence we and the world work out of our kids because clearly they see things as they really are. Good little Deedsy. Remember when Abe noticed that Loumy had a ton of pigment (as opposed to his very lacking pigment count)?
Shannon, what a cool post. Why won't I ever write on my blog any more??? I guess I'm glad I've got so many photo jobs for others, but I better get on the ball and write some of these cool things down like you have. Remember when I told Marcus about his physical body heritage and he cried out in a most joyous voice, "I'm a Mexican?!!!" Of course that joy is already being eroded away. Damn the people who think all illegal aliens are worth nothing--thus all Hispanics must be inferior.
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