So I ordered Elliot his first biography from one of those Scholastic Book order forms. I remember loving those order forms as a kid. New books just seemed almost as good as candy.Today his book came. A biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. After reading it and talking about it he asked me, 'mama, was that bad man who shot Marfin Lufer King white?'
Yes, he was, I answered. He thought for a minute, and obviously started worrying a bit about one of his black teachers. 'Mama, is that bad man going to shoot Miss Quiana?'
I assured him that the bad man was dead, and that no one would be shooting Miss Quiana. But as I read him the story, I kept trying to think about it from a 4 year old's perspective. How exactly do you explain to Elliot that other kids couldn't have played at the same playground, gone to the same school or eaten at the same restaurant?
What made me happy was that he wasn't as much concerned about the policy or the injustice of the past. He was just worried about someone he loved - Miss Quiana.
2 comments:
That's wonderful, his concern for Miss Quiana. D & I recently had a conversation about race and MLK too. It was really hard. Part of me felt like I was destroying something innocent in him by explaining or talking about this terrible evil. It's only the first talk of many, I know, but still, it was a difficult one (especially when I was trying to hear it from a 4 year old's perspective).
What a sweet guy. We are all so lucky to have him in our lives.
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