My very white brother and his redhaired wife adopted a Ugandan boy to go with their now four natural kids in Santa Barbara, and we’ve been wondering what he will encounter, seeing as he’ll almost certainly sound “standard white” and most likely be more interested in something like punk than rap.
Buford T. Justice: Hey boy, where is Sheriff Branford at?
Sheriff Branford: I AM Sheriff Branford.
Buford T. Justice: Oh, pardon me. For some reason you sounded a little taller on radio.
We now joke about all the moments he’ll have when people first see him and say (or think), “Oh, I thought you were… taller”, or try to sneakily look behind him to see if there’s someone else who better matches their mental image.
Anyone here got a heads up for little Adam’s future?
Maybe, or he could grow up and immerse himself fully into black culture, or Ugandan culture, if he feels like he missed out on it. You just never know. I don’t have any idea on how he’ll grow up - though speaking “standard white” or whatever you want to call it, and not liking rap isn’t really novel, so I don’t think he’d get harassed over it.
Keep him in Southern California. I swear to gods, a young black person can live his entire life barely even realizing he’s black, sincerely being convinced that American society has progressed far enough that racism is essentially a relic, and while some of its effects may still be present, once all the crazy old people die, we’ll live in a better society. Then that some person will move to, oh, say, the Midwest and realize, holy shit, I forgot I was black and that race was an issue. Righto, racism is alive and well.
I may or may not know this from personal experience.
Can you expand on this? I have a work acquaintance who insists racism doesn’t exist anymore, the implication being that any black person who experiences discrimination is being hysterical and over sensitive and why can’t they just get over it and move on? Gah.