Racism

I don't know where to begin.

First of all let me say that there is no way on earth to make this post politically correct, so I am not even going to attempt to try.  Let me also say that I do not consider myself or my family to be racist and I don't think that anyone else would either...well except for the two black men I met in the DMV office today.  And that is where my story begins.

I was stuck at the DMV for over two hours today with three kids (through lunch and nap time) waiting on their computer system to come back to life so that I could get the paperwork I needed for Little Joe's Trucking.  I am sure most of you remember that I took the kids to the zoo a few months ago and Jonah insisted that the monkeys were called grease monkeys.  I never even thought of anything bad associated with it and even now if he sees a picture of an ape he calls it a grease monkey.  Cute right?  Not so much today. 

Two rather large black men walked into the DMV office and Jonah looks at them, points and says LOUDLY "Look Momma, it's grease monkeys!"  Wow, how do you recover from that?  I tried to turn it into a teaching moment, but it went downhill even further and the two men were clearly insulted.

Me:  Jonah those are men sweetie.
Jonah:  But they are covered in grease.
Me: No they aren't sweetie.
Jonah: But why do they look like that?
Me: Well just like you have special polk-a-dots on your skin, God gave them special black skin.
Jonah: You mean God made them to be grease monkeys?

I gave up on talking him out of it and just started praying that he would stop saying it.  He found interest in something in the bottom of my bag and said "Momma, can I play with this?"  Figuring it would keep him occupied and hopefully mute I said sure go ahead without even looking at what he was holding. (I had two other children with me.)

Let me stop here and say also that I am not a big supporter of the Confederate flag.  If you like it, fine with me, but I personally feel that it has become more a symbol of hatred than what it was originally intended for.  I'm sure we all have different opinions on that but as for me and my house, out of respect for people who are offended by it; we do not fly, wear, or otherwise endorse the Confederate flag.  The only exception I have made to that rule is the General Lee.  The kids love the old Duke's of Hazzard shows and each have a General Lee replica.  Unfortunately, the General Lee is what Jonah had pulled out of the bottom of my bag and by the time I realized what was going on he was using it to try and "jump" the boots of the two black men that he insisted were grease monkeys, proudly showing off the confederate flag emblazoned across the top of the car.

I of course took the car from Jonah and put it away.  As I was trying to comfort Jonah from losing his car, Micah (the loving child) grabbed an empty water gun out of my bag.  Of all the people and objects in the room, he chooses those same two poor black men to stand in front of, point the gun at, and shout bow, bow,...bow, bow, bow!!

I truly could have died of embarrassment right then and there.  I know that my children did none of this with the intention of hurting anyone, but from the outside looking in, it sure did look like I was raising a house full of white supremacists.  I guess we will start working on manners and race relations soon!