Last night my wife and I tried teach my girls about Dr. Martin Luther Kind Jr. and what he was committed to. I owe a lot to him and others who gave so much so that skin color would not be a separator of people.
Our family is made up of different skin colors and would not be possible without the his "Dream" and others that worked to bring more fairness and equality. Both my girls were born in China and they even have different pigmentation but in heart we are a family.
The conversation was going well as we shared about his dream in which kids play together and we can be friends with everyone. It was at this point that one of the girls asked, "What happened to him?"
A long pause as I waited for my wife to take it and she waited for me.
"Well honey, someone didn't like what Dr. King was saying so they killed him?"
So, it was a difficult conversation because a person died because he loved. Yet as we continued to answer questions and share about Dr. King, his dream was well and alive in our family.
Similar conversation in your family? Any suggestions?
Yup I've talked about it with my kids. It's not easy. I do think that it's good that it's so challenging for the kids to imagine what it might have been like before desegregation. It shows that there has been change.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the most interesting conversation we had about MLK was last year when the grandparents happened to be over. So they were able to tell stories of what it was like before MLK.
It is so easy to take things for granted and assume that change is easy. I love things like story corp which capture stories from people that experienced the story.
DeleteWhat was most the most surprising thing for your kids to learn during that conversation?