Oct 21, 2008
Obama And The Kids
Sullivan hates the politicization of kids, whether by overbearing parents forcing their beliefs upon their children, or by, well, overbearing vice presidential candidates using their kids as cheap props. And then a reader of his writes in to say that their kid really does love Obama without any prompting as they voted for McCain in the primary.
And then on a personal level, I've heard from 2 different friends with very young children being raised in, ahem, more homogeneous areas of the country who have taken to calling any black strangers Obama.
And then on a personal level, I've heard from 2 different friends with very young children being raised in, ahem, more homogeneous areas of the country who have taken to calling any black strangers Obama.
Obama, please!
Why are the Cosby’s picking up the trash?
-question my then 4-year old cousin from rural PA used to ask when the refuse truck drove by
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Well, as a 4-yr-old in Ireland back in 1976, we had very very few black people in the country at that time. My mother had a statue of St Martín de Porres, who is a black saint. Of course, we meet a black person and my first question is, “Are you St. Martin?”.
To counter this, I have a tale from a friend who travelled in deep rural China at a time when there were few foreigners around. Sitting at the back of a bus he was highly amused when some kids in front of him turned around and ’rounded’ their eyes at him.
This even happens between people of the same color. My wife volunteered at an after-school program when she studied in London, and the younger children giggled whenever she talked and told her that she had “a TV voice.” They all called her Rachel (as in Rachel Green, from “Friends”).
When we were children my family lived in a very white suburb of Detroit. One day my mom and brother were at the grocery store, and my brother saw a black man for the first time. Without skipping a beat, my brother said, very loudly and to my mother’s embarrassment, “look mom! It’s Benson!”
Oh, the horror.
Guess that makes “Obama” the new “Canadian”.
[...] Unlikely Words: Obama And The Kids [...]
[...] also heard a little too much about Obama. And Republicans are starting to look for their Canada, to which they can flee in case of [...]
[...] Unlikely Words: Obama And The Kids [...]