telling your biracial boy about MLKjr day
Grandma and William, by Papa Johnson
—Tomorrow, I tell William, Is a holiday: Martin Luther King Jr day.
—Who’s he? William asks.
—A man. A great man, I say.
—But why does he have a day, Williams wants to know.
I tell our boy that Dr. King was part of a struggle for fairness. A struggle in America that has made our small, diverse family possible: Me, Billy, and William—black, white, and the best of both.
But to try to describe a recent world where such revolution was even needed, is strange and difficult, like trying to put a bad dream into words. ‘Grandma and papa’s world’ I call it, a world of protests, marches, bloodshed, and the legacy of actual human slavery colored normal life in this country. Telling that truth to a child for the first time, well it gives a parent pause. And yet this is the plain truth of history: dig deep enough and soon you unearth something unseemly or obscene.
But then, too , there is Dr. King and that speech on the mall, which I let William watch on YouTube. He leaned into my chest and listened, totally enthralled, even if he didn’t understand every word. He could see the crowds of people, hear that voice, wavering but full of righteousness. Striving for right.
Striving to make this a day where I’d even need to explain those times to my biracial boy.
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What’s sad also was the big fight that went on in Congress to establish this day. Nobody wants to admit they opposed it back in the day, but a large number of Republicans fought against MLK Day back in the early 1980s. So sad, and now Republicans have adopted MLK as representing a lot of what they themselves believe in.
So beautiful.
j
Beautiful, Jocelyn. I’m proud of you!
And yet, there are school systems that still justify not recognizing this as a national holiday when all others around them do. How? More importantly, WHY? We have come so far and yet there are still those who think so narrow mindedly…