Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

I had a disturbing conversation tonight with The Princess. She tearfully informed me that she is getting picked on at school because she is half-English, which somehow makes her suspect. She was told today by a boy in her class that she wasn't really American, and that she should just go back to her "own" country. It really hurt her feelings, as she is very proud of the fact that she was born in the UK and that she has English family and friends.

I was intensely pissed off and immediately had the idea of tracking down the wretched snot who said this and wringing his scrawny little neck. I ignored that impulse and instead suggested the conventional "why don't you just ignore him" parental advice.

"I've tried that, it doesn't work", she said.

"Okay, tell him you're not going anywhere, if he doesn't like it, HE can leave", I offered.

"I SAID that already! It didn't work!" she rebutted.

"Babes, you know he's only picking on you because he likes you." I said. It's amazing the lines you trot out by habit that you can remember your own mother telling you back in the day.

She rolled her eyes at me and said, "No he DOESN'T! He doesn't like me because I'm white. He doesn't like any of the white kids at school, only the black ones because he's black! He says we're all white devils!".

Whoa Nelly! Now THAT'S a different kettle o' racism altogether. Here I was so busy trying to teach my child to be open to all cultures and ethnicities that I totally forgot to mention to her that intolerance cuts both ways. And damned if it doesn't start at a tender age; I don't know why I was so surprised, but I was really taken aback. Silly me, I forgot where I live yet again, it seems. If my white half-English child is getting so much stick, I dread to think what the Muslim and Latino kids at her school hear on a daily basis.

I'm going to be paying a visit to her classroom in the next few days; I think a swift kick of consciousness-raising is a tad overdue.