Diversity Training
On our way to Michigan, Soren was chatting away with an older Asian woman as we got off one of our flights. They talked about the usual chit-chatty stuff...whether Soren likes flying, where he was going, how old he was...
A little while later in the airport we passed another, entirely different older Asian woman. Soren looked at her, waved and said "oh, hi again!"
Then as we were waiting for our flight we were playing with the luggage carts. As we were playing we found a friendly African American attendant who pushes the wheelchairs for people who need assistance in the airport. He was funny and pretended that he was going to crash his (empty) wheelchair into Soren's cart. They played around like that for a minute or so.
Then, a few minutes later another entirely different African American wheelchair attendant came by. Yep, you guessed it, Soren went out of his way to say "Hi again!"
Uh, yeah. Guess we need to step outside our ethnic circles just a bit more?
A little while later in the airport we passed another, entirely different older Asian woman. Soren looked at her, waved and said "oh, hi again!"
Then as we were waiting for our flight we were playing with the luggage carts. As we were playing we found a friendly African American attendant who pushes the wheelchairs for people who need assistance in the airport. He was funny and pretended that he was going to crash his (empty) wheelchair into Soren's cart. They played around like that for a minute or so.
Then, a few minutes later another entirely different African American wheelchair attendant came by. Yep, you guessed it, Soren went out of his way to say "Hi again!"
Uh, yeah. Guess we need to step outside our ethnic circles just a bit more?
That Soren is a character! I know what he's going through. I have a cousin who is my age and was adopted from Korea. When I was a kid, every time I saw an asian person, I said, "Hey Mom! She looks like Kellie!"
ReplyDeleteMy kids (the little adopted ones, not the big ones) have the same need for a little diversity training. I turned my back at the store for a second...When I turned around they were both standing about ONE FOOT from an african-american woman and her baby, both the kids just staring, mouths gaping, totally transfixed. Even as I pulled them away, they could not take their eyes off of her!
ReplyDeleteThen there's Katie who didn't even know her own cousins were Mexican until I told her -- then she said "I just thought they had a really nice tan!"
That's hilarious...
ReplyDelete