PART ONE
How Parental Prejudices Perplex and Poison the Next Generation
On class, colourism, personal insecurities and political realities
I met my African-Caribbean origin friend (who was born and grew up in England) for a walk in the park the other day and she shared how difficult the relationship with her whyte ex daughter-in-law is. Her son separated from his ex-wife some two years ago and Gracie is trying hard to keep the relationship cordial with the mother, so that she can be a presence in her grandson’s life.
The child, now four years old, is light-skinned and has pale brown Afro-hair. Gracie confided that his whyte mother and relatives seem to pick on and kind of shame him about his hair. They call it ‘joking’ or ‘just teasing.’
But Gracie is worried about the impact of that. While, the child can see that his grandma and father’s hair is a darker brown, in contrast to mum’s and her relatives blondish hair, she is very consciously trying to install a sense of pride in his ‘differentness’ including showing him pictures of sportsmen and actors with all sort of varieties of ‘Afro’ hair.
That we still have to deal with children being made to feel ‘different’, slighted or inferior for the colour of their skin or texture of their hair is kind of…
