Racisms part II

When one decides to adopt children of a race that is different than yours, (trans-racial adoption), one can encounter unforeseen problems that can hit you quickly and leave you stunned or poorly equipped to handle it. Both of my kids are adopted and black, (and good looking!). My son is mixed race, black and white. My daughter is black. One day while eating Pizza at Costco a black lady approaches my daughter with a very angry look on her face. This lady makes a strong effort never to look me in the face by the way. She then ask my daughter in a stern voice, "honey where is your Dad!" My daughter was taken back with surprise and so was I. We both stared at her in silence wondering 'what is going on?' She asked the same question again, and this time I talk. I inform her in a strong voice the she is my adopted daughter. Without looking at me, she ask my daughter, "Is this true?" . She replies by shaking her head 'yes'. She then quickly leaves in a huff without a word or an apology. This lady had assumed the I had kidnapped her and had mentioned she wanted to make sure my daughter was not kidnapped. (Some blacks cannot will not believe that there are kind white people who actually want to love black people.). Another time, Alisa and I were in the front yard when a black lady wearing a bus-driving uniform approached my daughter again. It seems she went to the trouble of interupting her route routine to attempt her self-perceived good deed. Again my daughter was approached rather than me. Again my daughter asked if I was her father. This time my daughter was more affirmative and said I was her Dad. This lady acted better than the last lady mentioned. She then turned to me and said, "I had to make sure it was OK." I give credit to the bus-driving lady for being more open minded than the previous example, but dare I say that it was prejudice that motivated her to stop? In both example that I just cited my daughter and I were doing pleasant activities that could never be conceived as abusive or mean. In the first case it involved pizza. In the second case it involved simple talk. There wasn't slightest hint of stress on my daughter at all; and yet two people would not stop, think, and examine the situation before proceeding. The lesson in this is that racism is not property of white people. The whole human race has been guilty of either racism or bigotry. I would recommend that you check out a good movie about racism. It is called "Hotel Rwanda", and it has Don Cheadle as the main actor. Besides being a good movie, it gave a clear and ugly portrait of black-on-black racism and genocide.