Mom Wants To Know How To Help Her ‘Racist Infant’ & People Are Getting Heated
Teaching your kids to be thoughtful about race is not just a good suggested parenting practice — it’s absolutely crucial. But for one mom, her overwhelming concern that her child is racist has caused the Internet to question her own thinking. That’s because the kid she’s worried about is only 4 months old. The mom wrote in to an advice column looking for ways to deal with her infant’s “issue,” but many are now pointing out that it most likely isn’t the baby who has a problem.In a letter written to Slate’s advice columnist, the mom known as She Didn’t Know Any Better! shared her concerns:
Dear Care and Feeding,
I’m a white parent with a white family, in a predominantly white area. When my kids get closer to school age, we’d like to move into a more diverse area, and for now I try to choose books and media with diverse characters. However, yesterday, at a company party, my 4-month-old met a black person (the significant other of a co-worker) for one of the first times. He had just finished telling me how much babies love him; then, my infant took one look at him and started crying. I gave a weak excuse about her being hungry, but it was pretty transparent.
I’m embarrassed and unsure if I should address the situation with my co-worker or pretend it didn’t happen. Any thoughts on how to handle my racist infant?
—She Didn’t Know Any Better!
In a recent edition of the Care and Feeding advice column, the new mom explained that despite ensuring that her kid is exposed to “books and media with diverse characters,” her daughter cried when she met someone who was African American for the first time.
“He had just finished telling me how much babies love him; then, my infant took one look at him and started crying,” she wrote. “I gave a weak excuse about her being hungry, but it was pretty transparent.”
Pretty … transparent?