Brent took Denzell to urgent care this evening. Our medical provider (who I love so much and this trip proved why we don't see other people) is not in on Wednesdays. Denzell occassionally gets skin irritations that seem to be related to grass or weeds, but not something contagious like poison ivy. They seem to quickly spread and make his eyes swell up some. We didn't want to wait until tomorrow and it is difficult to just take any walk in appointment when I don't even have Denzell to sit with kids who are waiting for me.
I let Brent know ahead of time that he needed to make sure that he came away with steroids. I know from past experiences with him that our medical provider would give us those for this rash. I also know that not all doctors have a lot of experience with the way that rashes look on darkly pigmented skin.
The physician's assistant that was to see him came in. He began to examine the rash. Denzell is hysterical when he tells about the way the man looked at it. (He cracks me up!) He then asks Denzell if he has had any rashes like this before. Denzell lets him know that "yes" he has.
The next part is what cracks me up and makes me sad all in one whack. The PA says "Did you have it here in the United States or . . . . (long pause here hoping that this teen or his dad would fill in the blank I guess) or in Jamaica?
Brent says "He was from Columbus" and Denzell gives the place he was born. The man then clamors with things like "So sorry for speculating" and "I guess it was the accent". Seriously, Denzell has no accent. It must have been hard for him to feel the need to explain. I mean what could he say 'Oh I didn't know there were dark skinned children in the US that are adopted by white people' or 'your dark skin confused me'.
We all had a good laugh about it. Some people really just don't think. I mean seriously though, why don't people see someone whose skin is different from theirs and realize that the person is probably American? Why do people always assume that multi-racial families can only be formed through international adoption? I am proud of how my family was formed and the other moms that I know who have families formed via adoption are too, but is it so much to ask that our society just see them as our kids and don't assume anything.
Oh well, we shall laugh and hope that the next time he sees a "black" kid with "white" parents he might just assume that families are formed through international or domestic adoption, but that he shouldn't make a teen feel like he has some foreign rash that is unknown of just because his skin pigmentation is dark. Rainbows are beautiful and so are rainbow families.
Oh so true to my heart. We've had many of these situation and I get so upset that people think that "brown" children are automatically from another country. A delegate of Republican politicians from our state are going to Arizona to perhaps model an illegal immigration law similar to their law. What bothers me, is will my children as young adult be "assumed" by the color of their skin that they don't belong. I wish as a country we could find better ways than outwardly appearances to solve these problems. I am glad you can laugh about it. I hope to teach my children to laugh and say, "how ignorant that person in thinking that way."
ReplyDeleteI'm there with you! I have children who are Hispanic and it terrifies me. I could end up in jail if they lock up one of my kids some day over not having "papers" with them to prove their citizenship. Doggone it, if "vanilla" people don't need them then why do "almond", "chocolate", etc. People are beyond ignorant. We just try to laugh at how lacking some people's lives must really be.
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