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Hello {{ first name | friends}},
This month’s reboot article revisits a catalytic statement that led to me making a list of where racism shows up, especially in relation to kids and young people of the Global Majority or who are racialised as Black and to the experience of parenting from those identities. As always, I’ve added a couple of new reflections and new resources.
REBOOT: “Racism is Like Air”
“Racism. It's always there... Like air.”
This statement from Yinka Ewuola jumped out at me on LinkedIn.
I often use Guante’s assertion that “racism is the water, not the shark” but Yinka’s statement reminded me of the taken-for-grantedness of racism and that white supremacy is a fact of life for Black and Global Majority people especially, but certainly not exclusively, in spaces where people racialised as white are in the majority. And I’d like to add a reminder here that anywhere that’s been colonized by a European country likely has to unlearn the pervasive pernicious privileging of whiteness - I know that’s true in Barbados, where it remains a work in progress with multiple missteps.
So then I started thinking about all the ways in which Yinka’s statement is true. Since her post was specifically related to parenting, these are the experiences I can think of right now related to that. I’m sure there have been others, though as Yinka points out, most people who share my identity can’t interrogate every single instance, or we’d never get anything else done:
Not seeing myself reflected in any of the literature related to pregnancy, whether medical or otherwise. (That’s just one reason why I appreciate Chidiebere Ibe’s work in this area.)
Having my pain dismissed during pregnancy, posing the very real risk that I could have ended up unable to walk (thankfully, a Jamaican midwife got on the case).
Experiencing an unusual level of scrutiny from our health visitor, as though she doubted my ability to care for my child.
Being mistaken for the nanny of my biracial child, because how else could white people explain the difference in our skin shade, hmm?
Having to rescue my child from the wrath of a white mother for doing the same thing any white toddler would do - and seeing that same behavior ignored or indulged in white toddlers.
Seeing the double take or hesitation the first time I walked into a playgroup with my biracial child.
Being mistaken for the shop assistant in the toy department even when my child was with me.
[2025 update: though less likely now, there are still times when I’m out in the world with my daughter and people will assume we’re not together.]