explaining obama to kids
it wasn’t until a few days after that i was able to watch obama’s inauguration. i’ve recorded the entire cnn coverage when i figured out that he wasn’t going to get sworn in until around midnight in our part of the world. too bad, i even prepared a commemorative all american dish for dinner (hamburgers, hehe), thinking we could all have dinner while watching the usa president take oath.
it was difficult explaining to jan what the hoopla is all about, though. he already knew who obama was, praise his kindy and school teachers. but i wasn’t sure i wanted to get into the details of what makes obama special from all the rest of the U.S. presidents so far. so he’s black. and? to jan’s eyes, race or skin color does not have any meaning other than the literal definition. obviously he’s not blind and he sees the difference between someone from china to someone from bangladesh or america. but to him, it’s a simple recognition that people come from different parts of the world. born in a biracial family and raised in a multicultural milieu, he truly does not have any prejudice against nor preference to any race or nationality. how can he, when he’s mingled with all of them without any bias? he respects that some of his friends do not eat pork, and others speak some other language he does not recognize, or that some of his teachers wear a head scarf. he respects each individual, and their idiosyncrasies. he recognizes the person, not the skin color.
so how does one begin to tell a child blissfully unaware of racial discrimination what a milestone it is for someone of african descent to be the president of the united states of america?
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