*I will use each Tuesday to rat myself out about something! It’s all in good fun and I am sure that these “truth-day” revelations won’t be things people don’t already know about me!
Thank you lady in the Honolulu airport for your “kind” comments to me. It would have been nice if you had just stepped to me like a grown up to share your thoughts about my raising a black child, but I guess not. Sadly, you are clearly not a mature woman who can ask questions about our family, but make assumptions and then speak them loudly enough so that I can hear you. And I know you were talking about us because, let’s face it, how many black kids with white Mamas were there at the Honolulu airport. Jus sayin’!
I pity you, but at the same time, I have compassion for you, so that’s why I stepped to you and “confronted” you. I know it caught you off guard, but oh well. I know you weren’t prepared for me to want to sit next to you in the crowded gate area to ask you why you felt it necessary to make such comments about me or my child. I know you were caught off guard when I asked you if you really wanted to know how we became a family and what I teach my son about his Ethiopian-American heritage. I know it caught you off guard that I speak his native language and know how many countries make up the continent of Africa (not that this takes rocket science to know, but you didn’t know how many there were, so…). I know you weren’t ready for me to tell you that I have taken my son to culture class, that we hang out with other Ethiopian-American kids, and that I take pride in and love his culture. I know you weren’t prepared for my kindness towards you. Actually, you probably didn’t think that I would even say anything to you. Well, you were wrong. And now you know that you were wrong on so many levels.
So, thank you fellow traveler who lives in LA, but couldn’t tell me where “Little Ethiopia” was. Thank you for making me even more determined to educate ignorant folks and to make sure that my son isn’t one of them!
PS—beware of the Mama Bear lady, and you best be thankful that I love God! Believe that!
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