My husband and I took our five year old son and four year old daughter to see Black Panther last Friday when it was released in theaters. As a Haitian man, my husband is a huge supporter of Black owned businesses and any black empowerment movements so he could not wait for there to be a movie that our children could see were a black man was not only a super hero, but the protagonist. We bought them Dashikis, freed their hair from their braids and went to see what was honestly a fantastic movie that not only we loved but our children did as well. On Saturday morning though, at the breakfast table, my son turns to my husband and says “I’m yellow and mommy is yellow but daddy you are brown and Yani and Maia are brown too.”
The thing is I am Cuban/Colombian, so my husband and have three beautiful biracial babies, our son being the lightest of the three. We have always tried to convey to them that they are Hispanic and Black no matter how light their skin may be but as a five year old our son is having trouble understanding this concept because when he looks at his skin he doesn’t consider it black or brown. We know that at some point we will need to be prepared to have a conversation with them explaining that there will be people out there who will take an immediate dislike to them simply because of the color of their skin but we were unsure how to approach this particular race talk with our son.
I looked into ways of trying to explain to him that although his skin color may not reflect it, it does not take away from his identity as a Black man. At some point amidst my research, I realized it is not my job to define his identity for him. As a mother of mixed-race kids, I know I have two important tasks. First I i need to help my kids to understand both sides of their heritage, African American and Hispanic. Secondly, I need to help foster a strong sense of self-esteem in my kids. My goal as a mother is to help them see that yes, they are different from non-mixed kids but they are unique and special, in part, because of their mixed heritage, not in spite of it. My hope for them is that they grow up being able to comfortably navigate both of their worlds, embracing who they are as exquisite individuals.
https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/01/supporting-mixed-race-children/
The Daily Mom 