Adenike.Amin&Raja Sankofa Thank you

This is the mark of a really admirable woman: steadfastness in the face of trouble....

inspired by Adenike Amin & Raja Sankofa
Thank you

The baby doll test-circa 2010

Being the great auntie I am I decided to take my nieces along with my brother in laws niece and nephews to the Lawrence Hall of Science this weekend. I had never been and they had a new exhibit up entitled “Race: are we so different”, being an African American Studies major I jumped at the opportunity to expose my nieces to something that I thought would benefit me as well as them. As we entered the exhibit the first thing I noticed was a huge banner with one face made up of many faces with a huge sign across the bottom, it read: “does skin color make race?” I asked my nieces to read it out loud so they could hear it for themselves, kind of like an affirmation thing. The whole exhibit was made up of different posts with several controversial topics, I feared these would go over my nieces heads, how wrong was I. My nieces and I traveled to every post including the “voice test”, in which you had a screen in front of you with several different faces and you had to choose who was speaking, we also went to the “personality screen” where you had to decide whether or not someone was mean or nice just by looking at their face-but in the middle if the exhibit laid a play area with several baby dolls. I took my nieces to the area to unknowingly to perform the “baby doll test” on them. The results were unforgettable. My older nieces Tiajayne 9, Turmeisha 7 were busy looking at Barak Obama, when my youngest niece Taliah 5 sat down with me to play with the dolls. Right next to my niece was a little white girl (name unknown), she was sitting rather close to my niece and eyeing us very carefully as her father watched her watch us. I asked my niece in my auntie-like tone “which one is the pretty one?” She held up the white doll. I asked “which one is the smart one”? Same result. I asked "which one is the boss and which one works for the boss?” She held up the black doll to indicate that one was the one who was the worker. As I continued to ask my niece several questions about why she thought the black doll was ugly and did she think she was ugly, the little white girl moved closer the hear what we were saying more clearly. Then I decided to drop the bomb ,“which one has the pretty hair?” My niece looked at me as if she didn't want to hurt my feeling, but spoke her mind anyway. “This doll has the pretty hair auntie” she said holding up the white doll. I was shocked. I was shocked because the dolls had the same exact hair! Both were made with yarn in the same exact style-except one had red hair (the white doll) and one had black hair (the black doll). My niece looked at the little white girl sitting next to us then looked down. We continued to talk and I asked her “what’s pretty hair?” She pointed to the black doll and said “not that one”. The black doll as well as the white one’s hair was very similar to mines and her. My nieces and I both have synthetic single braids in our head. My older niece Tiajayne said “sister is your hair ugly”? She said “umm, no...but..I...Kinda…mean...that…” SHE MEANS PRETTY LIKE MINES” shouted the little white girl. Immediately her father picked her up and whisked her away. Me and nieces sat there for another 15 minutes discussing beauty, hair and what it means to be beautiful-we didn’t see the little white girl and her father again. I pride myself on be being afrocentric and passing it to nieces, hoping that they embrace their natural beauty and hair. I promised myself that from that day on I would make it my mission to inform my nieces of their greatness and by leading by example next time hopefully the baby doll test will come out differently.

Grandma's Hand

So, for the longest time I've kind of obsessed with genealogy (the study of lineage from your home country). I've been spending more time with my grandmother Ms. De'essie Jefferson. One day after attending an assembly at my nieces school dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr., i decided to go spend some time with my grandma. I walked in to hear her on the phone as always and found her with a huge smile on her face. We began to make small talk about her health and my schooling and then the conversation turned-i couldn't have been more blessed or excited about the next hour of conversation that took place.


Me: So grandmama when you going back to Mississippi?

Grandma: Never! ain't nothing back there for me!

Me: All your folks back there...

Gmama:....

Me: grandmama do you remember your mother? Was she sweet?

Gmama: Was she? the nicest person i ever met. She taught me everything i know..about cooking, cleaning, taking care of children..

Me: What did she do for a living?


Gmama: cleaned up after white folks..see you my kids was spoiled. They used to mop the floor, i used a brush and scrubbed the floor. We used the iron you put on the fire, we hand washed our clothes on a washing board. I chopped wood, picked peas and cotton. i climbed trees and did everything my brothers did!

Me:..........
Gmama: you see i worked. i worked all my life. provided for my kids all by myself, now i just wanna rest.
Me:you deserve the rest.

We continued talking about the route that i would take in school and what my ambitions were. As we continued to talk i began to be filled with pride looking at MY grandma. MY grandmother-the first African American teacher's aide in the West Contra Costa School district. MY grandmother-raised SEVEN kids on her own! MY grandmother-who worked her whole life and is living in the house she brought! I couldn't be more proud to call her grandmama.

I think back to that old bill whiters song "grandma's hands" and i refer to what my grandma always tells me still: depend on yourself...

Thank you Grandma
Trice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXiE6zYHo2Y