Racial Issues

Tiny Princess just discovered the other day that her neighbors and playmates are Native Americans. (Their mom is Navajo, if I remember correctly, and their dad is "white".) She told me this morning that her friends and their mom were "Indians" and their dad was "white". But then she came out with a whopper: she said that because of these racial identifications, her friends had to serve their dad. And she said she'd gotten this information from one of the Indian girls herself.

Well, I couldn't let that one slide, and I think I ripped into it a little too hard and fast for her liking, because she hid under the covers and wouldn't talk to me about it any more or tell me where she'd heard that notion. I told her that if they wanted to serve their dad because he was a loved member of their family, that was fine; but they didn't have to serve him because they were Indians and he was "white". Maybe people used to do it that way, but it was wrong and we don't do that any more.

I think I'm going to have to talk to the parents and get some clarification on this. Maybe the girls weren't understanding correctly what their parents were telling them.