White Girl!

This morning I told H to go upstairs and get dressed for school. She came down a little later and said, "I'm White Girl! White shirt, white shorts, white socks, even white underwear." Then, as if she felt she had to prove that last one to me, she pulled her shorts down. My first thought was, "Thank goodness all the whites are sort of the same shade." Then I remembered that she has art today. I made a suggestion that she add some color to her outfit. She refused, so I decided to let her be White Girl.

I was in the kitchen making breakfast and I hear her running around yelling things like, "I'm White Girl!" and "White Power!" She told me she needed to drink white milk for breakfast to "make [her] more white."

Now I start arguing with myself. I mean, how do you explain to a six year old why the words "White Power" are bad, especially when she doesn't make the connection to skin color. My kids don't know that we are 'white'. They think we are skin colored (and not because I have taught them that).

So, I ask N if we need to address this and he said yes. So, after breakfast we told H that there are some people who think that because our skin is lighter than others' we are better and they use the words "White Power." We explained that Heavenly Father made people with all different colors of skin and no one is better than someone else because of the color of their skin. N said it might hurt someone's feelings to hear her say "White Power" or to hear her talking about being "more white."

How sad is it that my little girl has to hear this because she wanted to wear all white today and be "White Girl?"