I Had No Idea

My mother shared with me recently that my youngest brother, who is twelve years younger than me, had somehow adopted some rather antiquated ideas of race. My mother , brother , and one of my other brother's teenage friends had gotten into an argument about Tiger Woods, which eventually lead to a race discussion. My little brother did not know that Tiger Woods was mixed. My mother went on to explain to him that Tiger Woods was half black and half Thai, to which my brother replied," Everyone looks at him as black so he's black. That's how the world sees all mixed race people." My mother was horrified and couldn't conceive of where he could have gotten the information. She had and my dad had always raised my other two brothers with a good sense of who we were and where we came from. It was hard to believe that either of my other brothers had taught him this. The only conclusion we have is that possibly one of my brothers' friends maybe has told him this.

If my younger brother feels like he has more in common with black culture then I am fine with this, but I think that it's important that he is educated on the fact that some of his life experiences may not be the same as blacks. Especially with my brother having white skin and freckles, he needs to know that just because people may tell him he he is black doesn't mean other blacks will truly accept him this way. I want my brother to be very strong in who is and where he comes from. If he doesn't have that, it is possible for him to be hurt when he encounters racism from both sides of the spectrum.