I have this statue in my back yard. It is a statue of a little black boy. It is about 12" tall. This statue used to sit on my great grandparents porch in Jeanette, PA. Then it went to my grandparents house, in Detroit. Now... it is in my back yard. I love it. I think it is so cute and reminds me of where it came from.
It used to sit on my porch. One day my neighbor asked, "whats with the black statue?" Did he think I was saying something by having it there? I'm lost. I moved it to my backyard because I like it and really don't want to answer questions about it. What I wanted to ask is "what is your problem with the statue?"
Yesterday I took a photo of Emily practicing for softball tryouts. I posted the photo on my facebook and said I was very proud of her. I didn't realize my statue was in the photo until someone posted "who's on third base?" At first I thought he was referring to her coach who happened to be next to her until Emily pointed out the statue would be on third if we were actually at a ball park.
Rewind to Fourth of July weekend. We went camping with a group of people that we had not camped with before. One of which happened to be the neighbor that asked about the statue. The campground was packed. There were people from all ethnicities camping there. All we heard all weekend were racial slurs from the people we were with (many of the other adults). I actually could not believe how freely these people were speaking. It was extremely disturbing for me and I didn't care for my children to be subject to that either. The way I see it... people were camping. Camping with their families. No one was murdered. No one was raped. There were no drug overdoses... etc. People were camping. What is the problem.
I found myself unsure of how I should have handled it. I felt that my family was the minority in the group we were with. We don't share in their racist feelings or remarks. How would you handle this? What is the right way to handle this situation?
Back to my little statue. The person that asked "who's on third base" was someone we camped with that weekend (a relative of the neighbor mentioned above). While I think this guy is really cool, his racist remarks are a bit more than I can bear. I had to wait 24 hours before I responded to the question because I was once again shocked... that he went there. What the heck!
The hard part is that I really like all of these people until they open their mouths and shit like that comes out. I really... don't want to hear it.
I really could use some advice on how I should handle this in the future. I understand people are entitled to their opinions, however if I wanted their opinion, I would have asked for it. I'm sick of being subjected to it. If I shared in their feelings towards people, I wouldn't be working in health care. I feel all people should be treated equally unless they prove that they are scum of the earth. Finally, I like my little statue and don't understand how this is considered a racist thing.
