WHAT A WEEK!
Wow! A lot sure has happened since I last wrote a little over a week ago, certainly not least – and definitely not most - of which was a trip to my home state of California for my cousin’s wedding – an exercise in diversity in itself, beautiful and really good fun.
And then there is our new president! I’m still a bit fragile from all the emotion of the race, but isn’t everybody? If you feel you haven’t shed enough tears yet, read Judith Warner’s New York Times blog piece, “Tears to Remember,” and take the time to go through some of the comments. I came across the article Saturday morning, sobbed for an hour, then headed with my daughter to Sea World, where I proceeded to cry through the entire Shamu show. Something about seeing the symbiotic relationship between killer whale and trainer just tore me up. I knew then that it would be a while before I recovered; time to stock up on Puffs for the inauguration.
So what happens next? On the diversity parenting front, I’d like to think that parents will now be inspired to rush to join our school’s Diversity Committee, of which I am the default chair. Maybe someone will even heed my ongoing call and step up to be my co-chair. No…come to think of it, maybe not. There are some, perhaps even many, who think that Barack Obama’s election has rendered our mission irrelevant. Without hesitation, they’ve connected a few errant dots between a black president on the one hand and inclusiveness and equal access to jobs and education on the other, but it’s not enough to form a clear, straight line. While people may be a little more sensitive to blatant prejudice, the workplace and schoolyard may very well remain largely segregated for some time to come. Let’s put it this way: if they didn’t before, they’re still not going to invite a brown-skinned colleague to their holiday cocktail party, and I’m not waiting for the playdate invitations to come pouring in from the parents who just never seem quite able to accept mine.
I keep thinking about those cautious early days of integration, a decade after Brown vs the Board of Education, but before authorities had fully mobilized into forced busing that left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. In the mid- to late 1960s, and even on into the early ‘70s, seeing brown faces for the first time ever in what had been all white schools, now that was a new day; and I must say that my memories of those years are extremely positive. One of very few students of color throughout much of my K-12 years in Los Angeles, I remember being invited regularly into homes and to birthday parties not just by my classmates, but by parents anxious to do the right thing and not leave me out. They were curious, much like the Chinese in a previous posting (11/3/08), but also welcoming and kind. My husband also recalls having similar experiences in New York, while attending a prestigious independent school in Manhattan. Although we often ask ourselves, “What happened?,” we know all too well what did.
Those days are largely over, and I don’t see them returning anytime soon – more on that another time – but there are still institutions that have remarkably maintained that welcoming atmosphere over the years. One such place is my high school, Chadwick, which by admitting a number of students of color in 1969 and 1970 set a tradition of diversity that I am proud to see continues to this day. It is deeply ingrained in the school’s culture. Almost 30 years later, my newly-married cousin graduated from Chadwick. Many of his former classmates were at the wedding, along with friends made in college and in law school, where he met his Cuban-Italian bride. I was deeply moved to see such a tremendously varied lot who were genuinely fond of the couple – a real testament, I think, to them, to their parents, and to schools like Chadwick that work hard to generate an atmosphere that celebrates diversity in all of its manifestations.
And then there is our new president! I’m still a bit fragile from all the emotion of the race, but isn’t everybody? If you feel you haven’t shed enough tears yet, read Judith Warner’s New York Times blog piece, “Tears to Remember,” and take the time to go through some of the comments. I came across the article Saturday morning, sobbed for an hour, then headed with my daughter to Sea World, where I proceeded to cry through the entire Shamu show. Something about seeing the symbiotic relationship between killer whale and trainer just tore me up. I knew then that it would be a while before I recovered; time to stock up on Puffs for the inauguration.
So what happens next? On the diversity parenting front, I’d like to think that parents will now be inspired to rush to join our school’s Diversity Committee, of which I am the default chair. Maybe someone will even heed my ongoing call and step up to be my co-chair. No…come to think of it, maybe not. There are some, perhaps even many, who think that Barack Obama’s election has rendered our mission irrelevant. Without hesitation, they’ve connected a few errant dots between a black president on the one hand and inclusiveness and equal access to jobs and education on the other, but it’s not enough to form a clear, straight line. While people may be a little more sensitive to blatant prejudice, the workplace and schoolyard may very well remain largely segregated for some time to come. Let’s put it this way: if they didn’t before, they’re still not going to invite a brown-skinned colleague to their holiday cocktail party, and I’m not waiting for the playdate invitations to come pouring in from the parents who just never seem quite able to accept mine.
I keep thinking about those cautious early days of integration, a decade after Brown vs the Board of Education, but before authorities had fully mobilized into forced busing that left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. In the mid- to late 1960s, and even on into the early ‘70s, seeing brown faces for the first time ever in what had been all white schools, now that was a new day; and I must say that my memories of those years are extremely positive. One of very few students of color throughout much of my K-12 years in Los Angeles, I remember being invited regularly into homes and to birthday parties not just by my classmates, but by parents anxious to do the right thing and not leave me out. They were curious, much like the Chinese in a previous posting (11/3/08), but also welcoming and kind. My husband also recalls having similar experiences in New York, while attending a prestigious independent school in Manhattan. Although we often ask ourselves, “What happened?,” we know all too well what did.
Those days are largely over, and I don’t see them returning anytime soon – more on that another time – but there are still institutions that have remarkably maintained that welcoming atmosphere over the years. One such place is my high school, Chadwick, which by admitting a number of students of color in 1969 and 1970 set a tradition of diversity that I am proud to see continues to this day. It is deeply ingrained in the school’s culture. Almost 30 years later, my newly-married cousin graduated from Chadwick. Many of his former classmates were at the wedding, along with friends made in college and in law school, where he met his Cuban-Italian bride. I was deeply moved to see such a tremendously varied lot who were genuinely fond of the couple – a real testament, I think, to them, to their parents, and to schools like Chadwick that work hard to generate an atmosphere that celebrates diversity in all of its manifestations.
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