Helping My Children Grow As Colored-skin: My Concern
It becomes a concern when your child(ren) is/are getting to a stage where they’d face discrimination because of the color of their skin. For the first time in my life, I realized that I am colored-skin when I consistently found myself in the midst of white/fairly-skinned people. It never mattered when I was in my home country until I relocated to a place where there is racial segregation.
Personally, it was never an issue for me as I could cope with such reality but for my children, I am deeply concerned. I had to start learning what it’s like to grow up being colored-skin in Whiteman’s land — a paradigm shift to learning how to help my children grow without succumbing to intimidation from other kids, and of course, from like-races. Self-love, self-esteem, seeing and appreciating the color of your skin as a unique gift; is now my new gospel.
Focusing on developing certain abilities required to embrace diversity including others’ opinions, mindset, status, religion, preferences, offenses, and culture are key to coexistence. Teaching them at an early age, how to respect others irrespective of who they are is crucial to their survival and success. As the saying goes,
“Charity begins at home.”
Also teaching them how to defend themself and others, how to deal with mental stress, how to filter what they hear, see, and say. Most importantly, how to control their feelings.
This sounds like a huge job to do but when you’re determined to see them stand out in wherever they find themselves, it’s worth a task. The truth is, our child(ren) are the living messages we would send to a future we may not see. They are an extension of who we are; our success and/or our failure.
A careful and open-minded examination of our differences especially after observing the Indians, Chinese, Africans, Europeans, Americans, and Latinos have forced me to question the origin of humanity: Who are we really? Save that topic for another day!
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