Black Men

I just sent the boys out to the car to get their stuff out. They came in empty handed so I knew their lunch boxes, coats, drinks etc we out there. They have few responsibilities but one of them is getting their stuff out of the car and into the house.

After about 10 minutes I figured I had better go check on them. I knew they were in the car playing. Yep...there they were. Kees was in the drivers seat and Coulter was "riding" shot gun. They had found a couple pairs of sunglasses and were looking awfully cute. I opened the door and said, "What are you guys doing out here?" And Coulter says, "We are black men." Ahhh, that took me a bit back. I said, "What do you mean?" And Coulter said, "Well we wear black glasses, black clothes and black hats." Oh, Men in Black. I was glad to hear that.

Up until recently my kids hadn't really noticed color. It's only this year that Sophia has noted that people have different colors of skin but the boys still don't know that people are said to be black or white. They think that we are all just different shades. Sophia used to think that we (she and I) were of different ethnicity. She once said, "Mommy you are really darker and Coulter and I are BRIGHT." She was right. It was pretty funny.

I am glad that the words that Coulter used were something that he still doesn't understand. That it was innocence speaking. We all come to know about racial differences soon enough. I am glad that so far they see us all relatively the same. Hopefully we can continue to encourage their color blindness and know that by birth we are all equal.

I did correct him and tell him that it is "Men in Black" not black men. He said, "Oh." and kept on playing. They came inside and told Sophia that, "We're Men in Black" and then sang some rock and roll music. And then Kees yelled, "Let's get this party started!" What? They are too funny. I don't know where they saw "Men in Black" but apparently it is in their DNA to know that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are terminally cool as these two dudes that are "Men in Black."