Friday, July 16, 2010

White Daughter Brown Daughter

I'm probably going to get some flack from my brown daughters for putting the white daughter first in the title. But I can't win anyway, so I'm gonna leave it.

From the day my third and first half Indian daughter was born, I worked hard to make sure the two older white daughters were close to her. As they grew, I corrected them every time they mentioned color or ethnicity in anyway. It was a lost cause and a pointless one. My daughters couldn't care less what color the other sister was. They treated each other like any other siblings would, with love, con tempt, cruelly and with care. I was the one with an issue. It's natural. I want to protect them all. They just don't need it, I soon learned. Some instances:

One afternoon, Dhara aged 6 asked to do something not practical at the moment. I, of course, said "Not now." She, of course, whined, "Whyyyy nooooot dad?" White Emma, aged 19 touched the top of Dhara's head and matter of factly said, "Cause you're brown." Dhara punched Emma in the leg.

At a party at the in-law's house last year, I sat against a wall with my two older white daughters as the Gujarati speaking party revolved around us. Mina, half Indian and aged 11 walked up to us noticing that we were isolated and a bit uncomfortable and sang, "Hello white people."

Daya arrived home from shopping with the two little brown daughters and entered the house with a "Hello White people" again.

Yesterday, I had my two brown daughters sit in a small boat I had built from plywood to test. After shoving them off into a small pond near the house, Emma remarks sacrastically, "Dad's a racist. He sent the brown daughters out to test the boats safety". I told her I didn't like her pointing out the color difference in her sisters. Emma responded by shouting to her little sisters, "Let's test it on the brown people!" Daya and the kids laughed. Mina laughingly added, "We're using it before it gets weak and falls apart on you!"

I guess I'm the only one with the issue.

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