To my child:
I am so sorry.
I am so very sorry for the state of the world your father and I have brought you into. I know it’s a complete mess.
The country you live in is being torn apart by ignorance and hate. People all around us are clinging to outdated fears and condemning others for the color of their skin or their country of origin or who they love. It’s such a cacophony of ridiculous cries of “Free Speech” and unheard pleas for justice. I’m so sorry I can’t make everyone act reasonably.
You have been born into the world where women aren’t always treated as equals, where rape isn’t automatically considered wrong but “to be determined”, where presidents don’t quite understand what they’re saying, and where your countrymen/women are divided.
Your father and I want the best for you and it seems like we won’t get much of a choice because society is presenting so many problems that we feel our hands are tied.
We want you to grow up knowing people, not races or hateful slurs.
We want you to grow up knowing your self-worth and strengths as well as your weaknesses, not desperately changing who you are to fill a mold. You’re such a happy and loving child; I’d hate to see you become what society is deeming “appropriate”.
There are so many things wrong with the society I’ve delivered you into, but perhaps the worst thing about it is the fact that people want to ignore history. History teaches lessons, valuable bits of information needed for moving forward in this world. When you get older and go to school, you’ll learn about nasty things like the “Holocaust”, “Civil War”, “Jim Crow Laws”, and “Nazis”.
When I was in school, all of us knew the Nazis were terrible monstrous beings who wanted to hurt people that were different than they were. Or I thought we all knew. You see, people don’t all receive the same books, lessons, upbringing, or love that you will. In WWII there was a power hungry man named Adolf Hitler that caused pain and wreckage for the entire world. He did such horrible things that the world cried when it saw the ruin.
In the mid-1950s a lady named Rosa was extremely tired and refused to give up her seat when a man demanded she move.
Society did not protect Rosa, they punished her.
Rosa was a victim of society because of the tone of her skin, the melanin in her cells, and we cannot forget this. This incident sparks what history books refer to as the “Civil Rights” movement. The goal was for all men and women to be treated equally.
A man named Martin Luther King, Jr. sought to represent the people who shared his plight, to stand for all of those treated as second class citizens.
Eventually, he achieved his dream…in part. I cannot begin to cover every court case or social issue/wrong that occurred, but I can summarize and say that society is usually an ugly thing and found a way to oppress people once more: Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow Laws were special laws that only applied to specific people, people of a certain race. Most of these awful laws have been done away with, but not all of them.
History, dear child, is continually being ignored.
As I held you on a sunny August day, we heard about the Charlottesville Riot, and our hearts sank. People were donning white robes (to represent the Ku Klux Klan, a racist organization), parading around swastikas (a symbol of the Nazis), and promoting the idea of more hate towards people different than themselves.
How have we come so far in this world, yet we still debate the idea that every man and woman is created equal? I thought, foolishly, that maybe you could grow up in a world without Nazis, Klan members, or radical politics.
I was wrong.
I am so sorry that the world you’re going to learn to live in is so dark and mean-spirited. All we can hope for is that we are not alone in our belief that there is no place for racism and hate. Your father and I will do our best to instill good morals and a kind heart to you, and I personally promise to try and be softer-hearted.
We want you to remain your sweet, smiling self with not one smidge of hate or judgement in your eyes.
You are our world’s chance at a better tomorrow, a slightly delayed new beginning. I hope you learn from history, not ignore it. I hope that you grow up to see people for who they are, not what they look like.
With Love,
Mom
