And then the proverbial rubber hits the road....

The day finally came today. I could see it coming, and I thought it wouldn't be so hard or make me so emotional.

I had to sit down with my six year old son and explain to him what racism is.

Let me tell you how this has begun. JM has been in school, what? three weeks. He has come home almost daily with complaints about a particular little boy, H, who picks on him. Like any parent, we talk about how he needs to tell the teacher, he needs to stay away from him, he needs to do this, he needs to do that.....blah blah blah. Seems stupid now. This little boy, H, also makes fun of JM's skin color. We have talked about that on a smaller scale, with mostly the results being to tell the teacher. Why? Because she is a responsible adult who can address issues, and usually does. I actually saw H picking on JM the other day and corrected him. I also made it clear that I knew what was going on and it needed to stop. He apologized and seemed to chill out for a day or two after that.

Folks, that isn't working.

My husband tells tonight me that JM went up to two adult friends of ours at soccer practice last night and tells them he is being made fun of for his skin color. Both A and R were horrified, and told my husband. Get ready for tears, R's son, J, gets indignant and says very proudly and forcefully, "Well! He's my friend, and I love him!"

So, obviously something isn't being handled in his class, and I need to make a phone call come Monday morning. Yahooo.......

But, I have JM standing in front of me right now, tonight. I sit him down and we have a lengthy chat. I also find out exactly what was said to him, and folks, it ain't pretty. It's the table talk H is hearing from his parents. No six year old could come up with what was said. So, got that down. Now we need to build up my sad kid who feels trapped at school.

We talk about how God made his skin beautiful, chocolatey and brown so much that I want to eat him up. I tell him how beautiful he is and that God does not make mistakes, his skin color is because the God of our universe made JM this way. As we watched the sun setting, I pointed to the blues and oranges in the sky, the greens in the trees, the colors in our flowers. I pointed out that God is making that right now right before our very eyes for our pleasure and joy. I told JM that God, with a big G, thinks he, JM, is pretty special....and H's opinion doesn't matter when you realize how big God is and how small H is.

Then we had to talk about racism. I have to explain to him what race is, and that there are lots of different kinds of races, none better than the other, although people seem to do that often. How this kind of thing will not be the first time something like this happens. That statement coming out of my mouth almost made me throw up. I am angrier than anything that I have to say this to my beautiful child and that this breaks his spirit just a bit. We go on and on about that quite a bit. I am not going to subject you to that--because it's bad enough that I have to explain this crap to a six year old in a progressive city not embedded in the south!

I think JM will be fine. I think the school needs to brace themselves for Monday morning. No I won't be mean and go on a tirade. Thank God, I am not in my twenties anymore. I will be persistent and firm. I am really good at that. Plus I have a friend in the principal because she is a candle addict. Anyway, pray for me for that conversation Monday morning. Pray for my son's little heart. Pray that these situations build him up and make him stronger and that he chooses to find the positive and not the negative when this garbage happens. Pray our family continues to be cohesive and strong as a unit.