My Son's Racial Identity

by Todd

Shortly after my oldest son moved in (I have adopted 2 boys and am in the process of adopting a third), I received a call from his school, telling me there was a problem. After making sure he was all right, I was told that the problem was that he did not check off which race he was. (He is of mixed racial heritage.) I told the school official to ask him. The response was a rather incredulous, "Are you sure?" I responded that at 12 years of age, he could certainly identify himself racially if he chose to. The secretary hung up, though she sounded a little worried. When my son got home, I asked him if he'd been asked about his racial identity by the school. "Yeah," he replied, shrugging. I asked him what his answer was. He responded, "I told them I was Native American." I smiled and said, "Okay, but that is your smallest percentage; why did you choose Native American?" He shrugged and said, "Well, we were studying them today."

2001 (c) Todd
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