Color Me… Whatever Color You Want

Just a shout out to Justin of The justification of Justin.

Read your post today, “African American vs. Black”. After reading it, I well, just went about my day. We went out to see if any stores would be open, besides the supermarkets, on Super Bowl Sunday…. Sunday…… SUNDAY!

Anway, after a nice day out, I settled in to read Little Drake a bedtime story. He picked a book I never read before called, “My Box of Color”, by Lorianne Siomades. A really cute book talking about coloring things different colors… something like this… If I colored the sun blue, would it still be just as hot?”… kind of stuff. Won’t quote the whole book, but I’m really tempted.

The very end of the book hit me…

Beginning to sound meaningful?

From the mouths of children storybook writers. I just don’t understand the need to categorize everyone into labels according to race and color. I mean, I could analyze the hue of my skin and say that I am a whiter than white whitey, well, that is before the mostly exposed parts like my face got exposed to the sun for 47 years. My stomach, butt and parts of my breasts have never seen the sun. One arm is darker than the other. Does that make me a freak? I have hair on my arms. Are you now REALLY freaked out? White with a capital “W”… so why am I called “Caucasian”? Can anyone tell me what that word means? From looking at how it’s spelled, it’s got “Asian” in there and I’m not from Asia. Ah, just me being difficult.

I think that if it’s absolutely necessary for society to place labels on the human race, that they need to get it together, across the board, and decide what they want these labels to mean… color of skin? Point of origin? For simplicity’s sake, I would just like to be called an American. It seems to me that a lot of people want to be Americans but want to be identified with other countries. I do realize that Americans are not a popular people out there… and in some ways, we deserve that. I can imagine Americans visiting other countries and walking around like they own the place. That would really tick me off if I was from another country and watching that. As a matter of fact, I have experienced that when I see foreigners here and walking around like Americans owe them a living… but that’s another story. It’s also more of a matter of how they were brought up and how America is portrayed to them, in their own country before they even think of coming here… like people criticizing the mother for not bringing up that child right. I feel a rant coming on about how kids (and adults) behave in public spaces, basically lacking in common courtesy, pushing ahead, cutting lines and navigating small public spaces without any regard for anyone else in their path. Maybe people really ARE animals, especially at buffet places…… but I digress.

Oh, about this book. LD had it on his book shelf for the longest time, but he always picked out other books for nighttime readings. Today, he just happened to pick this on out and it gave me pause to think… well, a little. This book also reminded me a lot of a song I made up for LD when he was just weeks old. I even went so far as to look into making a book out of it, and started planning… until they told me that they wanted mega bucks to publish it and that I should not get my hopes up for it selling big. Basically, publishing this book is a luxury that I can’t afford…. how about that? I know that if I really want to do this, that I should. We just don’t have it… though it’s on the to-do list.