They had most of those colors down in a few weeks. I was so proud to hear my babies using such smart words.
Then, one day, when we were reading one of his books, Ethan was naming all of the different colors of the Sesame Street characters. He suddenly paused and asked, "Mommy, what color are you?"
I thought about it for a second, and of course, my first instinct was to say, "white," but I knew he'd never go for it. So I said, "Ummm...I'm kinda tanish, I guess."
Instantly, I saw the opportunity for racial identification, but I passed on it. He's so young. I know the time will come when he will be exposed to society and its stereotypes and racial classifications, but for now...what does it matter? He asked me about color, not race.
"Tanish? Well...what color am I?"
"You're kinda tanish, too."
"Is Emma tanish?"
"Yep, her too. And Daddy. We're all tanish."
I figured my next step would be to look up the names of every shade of brown and variation of white that I could. But, he never got hung up on it, never asked me about all of the colors of the people we saw when we were out. It never seemed to strike him that there were a lot more colors of people than just tanish.
Then, one day when we were in the grocery store, a man said hello to me as he passed, as many polite people do, and after he was a ways down the aisle, Ethan said, "Who is that man?"
"What man?"
"That brown man with the different hair..."
"Oh... That man who said hello to us? I don't know him. He just said hello, so I said hello, too."
"Because he's nice?"
"Yep, he seemed nice."
"Does he know our names?"
"Nope."
"Why doesn't he know our names?"
"Because we didn't tell him."
"Let's go tell him!"
"No...let's not bother him right now while he's shopping."
"Awwww...he'll never, ever know our names." He's getting so dramatic these days. Everything is never, ever going to happen again. I can not imagine where he gets that. ;)
Just the other day, another skin conversation happened. I was putting sunscreen on him, which he hates. He was crying hysterically: "You're making me turn white! Stop making me turn white!"
"Let me rub it in.... See? There. Tanish again. We have to put on sunscreen so we don't turn red."
"We'll turn red??"
"Yes. The sun will burn your skin and make you turn bright red and it hurts really bad."
"Well, I don't want to be red and hurt really bad."
"Well, then you better let me put this sunscreen on you, so you'll be safe...and tanish."
"Well...okay."
I smile every time I hear him refer to a person's color as tanish. Little sweetie pie. I hope no one ever corrects him about that. Clearly, he is tanish, y'all.
