My Child is Not a Pet!

You sit here and pet my kid's head after less than one minute of speaking. I don't know you. My child is not a little dog that you can pet. I am sorry but do not touch my children.

I am having a bit of a problem with. . .I hate to say this. . .white people speaking to me about my multicultural family and then proceeding to touch my children. When it is a white person speaking to another person that they don't know that happens to be white I see less petting like a dog. Yes, may be I am thinking too much about this but then again the sins of the past still run deep especially when you are reminded daily that you are not white.

I wish that I could say that because my children are black but this is not true. I have seen white people not pat the heads of black children and may be I need to get out more and find more black children. May be there are black kids that are getting this treatment. I am only hearing about this from mothers that have multicultural children. Some reply with rude comments which I feel like white fragility is something where they are unaware of what they are doing. I have also noticed that many of the angry comments come from white mothers who have multicultural children. This does make me wonder if the ignorance is non existent and they are truly being dicks.

I also think this is something for me to not say anything since I saw my mother do this as she smiled in the faces of white people that told her I was a cute little girl and pat me on the head. She did not say anything upsetting. She was a child during the civil rights movement and by the end of the 60's she was a mother and wife fresh out of high school.  My meek nature of the matter stems from her but my feelings about it do not. There I feel like I have inherited from my father that claimed to be racists all day but really didn't care for white or black people as I noticed he would not bite his tongue for anyone.

My reaction is a teaching method for my children who will get comments like, "What are you?" and "What are you mixed with?" for the rest of their lives. Do I play the silent card and when someone speaks to me just walk away and never say anything? ( I have tried that. Some people just follow me around still speaking to me.) Do I say, "Don't touch my baby's head! What, you think my kids are dogs?" or something along those lines which shows me on the defensive. Do I continue to let them exploit ( because it kind of feels like that) my children because they are "exotic" in their eyes. Honestly, I think my children are beautiful because they have a beautiful father. I have been told I am beautiful from outsiders so not because we are Black, White, Native American, Mexican and Italian couple. ( Yes, I threw out all our hidden cultures/races)

This is a pet. . .

THIS IS NOT A PET. . .

Until you have had your heritage so exploited that a child that was born over 115 years after slavery ended STILL gets offended when you pat her child's head like a dog. . .you can not tell me that I am overreacting. This is not because Trump is in office. My son was born while Obama was president. Racism and injury from it is generational. It can be passed into the next generation by actions and speech. I know many are cautious of what to say and do but I am a mother and these are my children. . .simple as that. You can say I have beautiful children. You can tell me about other beautiful families. But, do NOT pat or rub my kids head! PERIOD! That goes for other multicultural families and yes I am speaking for them. I have many friends that have created multicultural families and I think the consensus is clear- their children are just that- children.

Not pets!!!