Saturday, March 7, 2009

A Fetus Of Uncertain Race

I took Courtney along when I had an ultrasound for my third pregnancy. She was very excited to find out that she was going to have another little sister.

A few days later, I got a phone call from Courtney's first grade teacher. She wanted to tell me what Courtney had told the class about her soon-to-be-born sibling:

"My mom is having a baby girl and we're going to name her Chloe! The only thing we don't know is what color she'll be."

I got a kick out of it, but wondered why on earth Courtney would say such a thing. The next week at church, I figured it out. We have friends, a white couple with children of their own, who adopted a black child. Courtney didn't understand that their darker-skinned child was adopted. She assumed babies popped out of their mommies just any old color. I explained to Courtney otherwise, but couldn't help thinking that it would be kinda nice if skin color were always a surprise. Would there still be racism if white couples bore black children and vice-versa? I don't think so. I think that might be wonderful.

KA