Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Stereotypes?

I had borrowed a couple of amar chitra katha books and of late KB and KG have been very interested in us reading those books to them.  Especially "Dashavatar".  KB suddenly asked a very matter of fact question, "Daddy, why is it that the Asuras skin color is always painted grayish and the devas are always peachish?".  It was a good observation, one that I took for granted in my childhood.  But in light of the Trayvon Martin news, one begins to wonder, how much of this kind of stereotyping starts at a very young age?

We saw a movie on netflix, I just cannot remember the name of it.  In it, a black man and his wife get pulled over by a cop while they are driving home.  The white officer than insults the man by groping on his wife while checking if she has any arms on her.  He stays quiet without defending the wife and just plays it safe so as to not get them into further trouble.  I found it rather ridiculous when I was watching it and thought, come on, no one will be this bad and so daring.  But now I hear more and more of how a black person has to play it safe and make sure he doesn't get harmed because he seems threatening. Sometimes it is so hard to explain these sort of things to children when they ask such questions. 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

My kids also asked why Krishna is blue. On the rare occasion that a dark-skinned person is a good person, they are colored blue not brown.

-NW

cantaloupes.amma (CA) said...

My daughters asked the same question Noonie. I also agree with NW's comment. We say Krishna means Black .. he is also called Shyama .. yet is depicted in blue. Why the stereotype?

A day in the life of a MOM said...

The movie you talk about is "Crash"..and yes we pretty much get this color bias at a very young age.

Aparna said...

Noon, stereotypes are all around us. Consider the ongoing controversy over the hunger games. Even I have experienced stereotypes, even in the US as a brown/asian/indian person. And not just in terms of how we look but also how we speak/behave.
In fact Ads also thinks all bad people are grey/black and good people are white/'cream'. The movie you mentioned is "Crash".

noon said...

NW - true. Blue not brown...

CA - esp the way these beautiful princesses are shown in these amar chitra kathas I almost feel weird to show them to KG. And beautiful ones for sure will be painted fair/light. And the wicked ones will be gray and fat and what not.

Adloam - Crash - yes, thanks!

Aparna - thanks - yes, crash. I am sure we are part of this stereotyping.

NW said...

There is a little girl in my daughter's class who is half- African and half-German. One of the girls in her after-school program saw her with her mom and said 'Eww, I don't like that girl. Her mom is so dark'. My daughter spoke up and said 'That's not nice. She is my friend and the color of her mom's skin doesn't matter, it matters what is inside.". And the girl just said 'OK' sheepishly. I was so proud of my daughter when she told me the story. They've been taught in their school to be up-standers and not by-standers.

noon said...

Mind-blowing - that that kid would say something like that in the first place. How can they even think to say ew...where does that come from...unbelievable. And your daughter's response was amazing. How old is she? It is incredible that she stood up for her friend. There is this anecdote about how M Jordan went to a pool party and it turned out every one invited was white. When he got into the pool (in the 80's mind you) every one got out. His close friend who was white also walked out of the party as a show of support for Micheal Jordan. She is going to be a strong woman fighting for causes looks like!

NW said...

Yes, I was also very disappointed that the girl made that comment in the 1st place. She is a 3rd grader, my daughter and her friend are in 1st grade. The 3rd grader had earlier mentioned not being happy with the color of her skin -- she is Persian. So I think her own insecurities caused her to make that mean comment.