There’s this great book that we often read Miles at bedtime called Shades of Black. It’s a book of photographs of black children of many skin tones, hair textures and eye colors and it celebrates their beauty and heritage. Every few pages it says something like, “I am Black. I am unique. I am proud to be ME!” He loves the book which compares skin color to delicious foods, hair to different things in nature and eyes to gemstones. When we get to the boy who describes himself as rich, creamy milk chocolate, Miles often shouts “I (am) like creamy chocolate!”
Sometimes we talk about our skin colors in our family. Like, Miles has brown skin and Mommy or Daddy has beige skin. And so and so in his class has brown skin and her Mommy is black and her Daddy is white, etc. Kids his age are so literal, it is probably very confusing for him to understand why we say he (and other people) is/are two different colors. As a result, Miles often gets the two colors black and brown confused. Here is a very cute example:
Miles and I went to the store yesterday and he told me he wanted to buy some “goldfishies. ” “But I want the BLACK goldfishies. NOT the ORANGE ones.” I was puzzled by this. I know they make them in lovely artificial shades of yellow, orange, green and red, but black ones? He went and found the pretzel ones on the shelf and handed them to me. “These black ones.” (They are brown).
Another part of that book says, “I am Black. I am descended from African Kings and Queens…” Last weekend we were all in Ron’s office doing an improv percussion concert. Miles was pounding on his drum and chanting: “My name is Miles! I come from Africa! I am a King! My name is Miles!”
