Martin Luther King Day was something we enjoyed as a family. It was good to remind our children of how much things have changed. A family like ours wouldn't have been an "ok" thing in that day. Our family has so many different skin colors that we really do live out his "dream" where a white child and black child walk hand in hand! We have that happen all the time here. :)
We talked about the racism that we have seen as a family. The three teenagers and Dayton remember moving from our first house and into a trailer on my family's farm to get away from the extreme racism that we faced. They remember "Daddy not having a job" because they fired him when we adopted "black" children. Thankfully, we can also remind them of how fighting for what is right is hard, but very worth it. They remember "Mommy and Daddy going to court", when we fought them in federal court. They also remember that it went well and the people who didn't want our family to "be" found out that there are consequences. We remind the kids that while we can't change what people "feel" and "think", we can change what they think they can "do".
Yes, our family got a good taste of racism. We also got to buy a bigger home on the other side of the county in a multicultural area. We got to adopt more children as a result. Sometimes I'd like to send a certain someone (or group of someones) a family picture at Christmas. We had 4 kids when they attacked our family and 6 kids when court was over. (God blesses when you are following Him!) Since then, we have adopted 7 more children and have 5 more children on the way. God surely does continue to bless!
Yes, Martin Luther King changed the world. There is still a long way to go for "equality" for all. There are a lot of people with deep prejudices that need to change their hearts (their minds would do no good). We meet them in every day life and unless your family is "multi-colored" then you probably never notice. Prejudice doesn't always mean that you take away a person's rights, but sometimes just that you never give them a chance to show who they are because you have such preconceived notions about "their kind". Prejudice isn't something that most "white" people "see", but it is there. If your skin happens to be "white" and you've never "seen" it then just adopt a child that is a different skin tone than your own. Wow will your eyes be opened! Thankfully, we quickly eliminate those type of people from our lives and make sure that if they are in a position to have any power, that they quickly realize that they better keep those prejudices inside their heads and out of our lives.
I'm going to write some more this week about prejudices that need addressed. I also want to address some of the prejudices often overlooked. I want to talk about the fact that our country is trying to get rid of an entire group of people. I want to talk about how we Americans "judge" how other countries treat their people with disabilites, while we don't do any better in many ways.
I'd actually love a dialogue. So think about these topics a bit. Have you ever experienced "racism"? How? What about discrimination in other ways?
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