A Typical Biracial Moment

I went to the mall yesterday with my mom and took my four year old , who is quite a handful, with me.
We were browsing through Bath and Body Works big sale and as usual my son was a little energizer bunny. He was  grabbing candles, running around the store, and striking up conversations with the customers and sales people. It was all I could do to even shop for 30 minutes.  I picked out what I wanted and quickly checked out while my son had begun yet another conversation with a customer.  I went to take my son's hand and the woman began to comment on his talkativeness and then stopped and studied my face for a second and said " Oh, he's not yours. He's hers, " she said looking at my mother.
I said ," No he's mine," at which the woman replied , "  Well.... he looks like her." 


  My brain was so scrambled by the surprise of the woman's rudeness that I could not concentrate on m mom's voice asking me what I had bought. I didn't know how to respond to the woman that's how rude it was. I was completely taken off guard! I have not encountered such racially based rudeness in a while. I just nodded my head at the woman in response to his outgoing nature, and quietly reaffirmed he was my son. It wasn't until later that I thought of what I could say.  I could have said," He looks just like his dad but he has my eyes!" Or ," Of course he looks like her, she's my mom!"  


  I really regretted that I had not thought of something clever to say to tell her off in a nice way. It's hard to know what to say when you're not used to something like this happening. For most people it goes without saying that I am mixed with something, they just don't know what that something is. Even with people knowing that I'm biracial or thinking that I'm hispanic, they still see my mom in me and comment on that. I'm used to people asking me what race I am , and although it's tiring, I always answer them in a nice way.  People disputing me about my child never happens.  This whole incident was very insulting , because basically the woman was trying to say,"You're not white, so that's not your child."


  In a day in age when their are so many interracial marriages and interracial adoptions you wouldn't think that someone would be that ignorant. And who's to say that just because you come from a mono racial family that all your kids look exactly like you! No matter what background you come from some children will look more like one parent than the other or they will look like both parents. It is also strange to me that society easily accepts that a white woman can have darker children, but a  black woman can't have light children or a biracial woman can't have white looking children. My son not only gets his white heritage from his father but he also gets it from me as well since I am biracial. I not only give him black heritage but white heritage too. I am equally my sons mother as my husband is his father.

  This incident is definitely not something to spend too much of my time pondering on or steaming over, but it feels good to share my experience and get my feelings out there. Maybe someone can benefit from this, either by knowing that someone out there shares their experiences, or by showing someone else that their outlook on things needs changing. Most important of all in life is not getting distracted and letting minor annoyances take away from keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. Race is something the devil uses  to keep people  busy fighting each other over  to distract  them from Jesus.  All of us were created by God and put on this earth to meet and serve him. Our souls are all valued by Him.

Galatians 3:28-29
28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29Ifyou belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.