i'm white

i told my kids that today. we were talking about the civil rights movement and school integration. whenever they'd ask a question that incluced white people they'd start to say "y'all" then immediately say, um white people.

for example, a kid asked me "why did y'all, i mean, white people, not like blacks?"

i hated that they felt so sheepish and felt like they always had to catch themselves.

so we had a nice candid discussion about my whiteness (and the, apparently, two students in my class who say they're white b/c they have 'some in me' - the other kids were like what are you talking about, you're just light-skinned). it was good to talk about race and prejudice openly with them, and it was a good conversation.