mac would only draw himself as white for at least 3 years after the adoption. He did his 3rd grade multi-cultural day presentation on the US, NY state. He will never volunteer up that he is African, but I just plug away at pride and culture, hoping he gets it from osmosis from the items around our house and the restaurants we eat at. Also me making him watch marathons.
Natter 72: We Were Unprepared for This
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Also, can't being Chinese mean whatever it means to him, later on? Like Jesse said, I'm Irish the way you're Chinese, but it just means (to me) that I have ancestors who experienced a certain type of culture/historical events in Ireland.
Also, you're not failing at parenthood.
I guess, too, I think the most defining part of his life and Grace's life will be growing up as set of twins, one of which has pretty high intensity special needs, to two gay parents. Culture is just going to be lower on his list of identifiers, maybe.
But Noah is so adamant about NOT being Chinese. Then when he is almost ready to admit he is, he will look at Katie and say, "Are you Chinese too?"
Noah's got a lot going on! He'll be fine.
Also, I am reminded of my Memere insisting to me that she was not French, she was American. Now, I realize I should have said French-Canadian, but OK, Memere, lets have some tourtiere and talk about this some more....
Noah's a little kid! He doesn't have to have it all figured out right now. He'll be fine, like Jesse said.
Jesse's grandmother reminds me of mine, who was always and only American. Meanwhile, her sister was Jewish and her mother was Austrian. It's interesting what people will grab onto as their preferred identities, especially when we all really have multiples to choose from.
I didn't think I was black at about Noah's age. I was Jamaican (pretty easy when you live there), but I wasn't black. I was brown.
Then came the books.
work is so much improved with music (at least the type of work I was doing yesterday and most of what I am doing today). YAY iTouch!
Urgh. My internal thermostat is still broken. I am continually uncomfortable.
And I have a ton of shit to rip through today. A year's worth of status reports to summarise.