What we do for our colorful family

What do I do for my family that is different? Honestly, a lot of things no differently than most families. Some things we do very intentionally different. Here comes the list:

Kids books that don't have all caucasian children. We want them to have at least a multicultural mix of kids. It's not easy. Although Scholastic book orders from schools are wonderful. We have a pretty impressive collection of kid's books.

We obviously have an African nativity scene at Christmas. Historians agree, at least the wise men were of African descent. Mary and Joseph were middle Eastern, and not blonde with blue eyes. JM argued with me pretty relentlessly last Christmas that our nativity was "wrong". It disheartened me.

We look for movies with good African American role models. "Radio", "Remember the Titans", "Glory Road" to name a few. Especially now since JM loves sports, he will watch them.

For kids specific media, we absolutely love Bill Cosby's "Little Bill" on Nickelodean. Good luck trying to find any of those episodes on anything but VHS. There are only a few available. I find that quite interesting and really want to know why Nickelodean hasn't marketed "Little Bill" products like every single other program they have.

JM is really liking Corbin Bleu from the Disney Channel too. Great role model, and the dude can dance. I also like that his music, and all that comes with Corbin's movies from Disney, is fairly benign. We will have to start addressing some of the totally offensive lyrics that come with some hip hop and rap. Although, I fully listened to my entire Nickelback album last week, rock has it's lyric issues as well. Let's just put it this way, not all of Nickelback's songs make it to the airwaves for a reason. But Corbin Bleu has been a great African American role model for my son. "Jump In" is a great movie for him.

Here is the fun one--this little white girl learned how to corn row hair! Yep! I found a gal who was proficient in it and agreed to teach me. Bought a mannequin head and a bunch of hair care products not suited at all for my hair and we braided that mannequin head like crazy. She taught me well. I braided BH, our youngest, quite a bit his first year.

Consequently, we familiarize ourselves with African American traditions. One of them specifically, not to cut a baby's hair for the first year of their life. Why? Because of how curly it typically is, you can create a lifetime of ingrown hairs by cutting it early. Letting it grow out a year gives the adult hair time to come in without curling into the scalp. Interesting huh? Hard to accomplish when your baby comes with a full head of hair. Yes, that picture of his is at eight months old, and a full head of hair. It's cute, alright. Trying combing it.

We also really take seriously the month of February and African American history month. Then we start talking about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, slavery, the Civil Rights movement, etc. As they get a little older, we certainly will go to several of the events in our area that have speakers, activities, etc.

A book I picked several years ago for the book club I belong to "Twelve Years a Slave" by Soloman Northrup. I absolutely recommend it, and when JM is a smidge older we are going to read it. It's the true story of a slave that was kidnapped in upstate New York in the 1840's and sold into slavery in Louisiana. By the grace of God, he was freed twelve years later. This is his narrative. It is considered one of the best slave narratives next to Frederick Douglass's in terms of accuracy. Amazing story. Tragically, Soloman died in 1860, when slavery was abolished. He didn't live much longer after being freed either. Being a slave took a huge physical toll on his body, and he speaks to that in his narrative.

Anyway, you can see it gets pretty comprehensive quickly. We are a colorful family and would be amiss to not put our children's culture in front of them. It's also a great learning experience for us.