So....We’re White.

Originally posted Wednesday, March 21, 2007


So....We’re White.
Current mood: embarrassed
Category: Life

I was running some errands at our local (hicksville) Target.....

Actuallly it’s pretty exciting, they just opened a new SuperTarget about 5miles or so from my house in the neighboring hicksville village.

Oh the excitement... hold back... I know.

So boo and I were checking out the goods, playing, trying on sunglasses, laughing, and generally having a good time.

I wanted to find a new swimsuit, so I grabbed 3 different ones to try on. Each was greeted with
“Ewwww.... mama... “ “You have two underwears on, mama, ewwww one’s in your butt” As her little hands were trying to reach for my thong undies and remove them from their proper place as I frantically turned in circles, cuz really? Who wants their childs hands in their butt crack?.... but I digress......

After the swimsuit fiasco... we went to the grocery side of the store to pick up a few things we needed and the emphatically added.. “COOKIES!!” to the list.

As I was pushing my little darling boo in the cart (I was halfway holding her, halfway pushing her because seconds earlier she was running through the store not looking where she was going and ran straight into a bar for displaying jewlery and it smacked her right below her eye, she was being brave and trying not to cry, but it already was a red bump) and I was singing made up songs to comfort her.... and all of a sudden....

“Mama! Mama! There’s a BLACK MAN!!”

Now boo will keep repeating the same thing over and over until you acknowledge her, so I replied yes honey.. but he’s just a man.

“NO!!!!!”
“Mama he’s a
BLACK MAN!!!”

“Yes sweetie, but everyone’s different, he’s just a man”

Screaming at a volume like she’s about to meet her favorite Cartoon hero, she grabs my face, turns my head and screeches
“BUT MAMA L-O-O-K!!!! Mama why is he so BLACK!!!??”

I turned to this poor man, and his girlfriend and expressed my apologies, and tried to explain that we don’t get out much, and since we live in hicksville there’s not much ethnic diversity.

His girlfriend laughed and said she understood and it was no big deal... but he didn’t look so cool with it.

Which I’m pretty sure had something to do with my darling boo in the background all the while I was talking to them was still saying.....”Mama... LOOK at him.... Mama he is SO black!... Mama he’s REALLY DARK... mama.... that’s a black man...” which at this point had started to have a sing-song quality about it. And the song crescendoed with “MAMA WHY IS HE SO BLACK?”

To which, This RED mama replied with the only thing she could think of
“Why are you so white?”

Which did create the desired slience for about 2 seconds.

I heard a slight echo and laugh from said black man’s girlfriend... and then...

Boo looked at me with disbelief and a touch of disgust and said
“I’m not white, my SHIRT is white......but mama.... (pointing again) THAT’S A BLACK MAN!”

So I said my apologies again, and quickly pushed her off in another direction trying to explain people come in all shapes, sizes AND colors...

and of course

we ran into the same poor man about three more times (well actually came “close” to him and by that I mean at least 20 feet away) and each time he was greeted with

“MAMA THERE HE IS AGAIN! THAT BLACK MAN!!!!”