Bad influence.
I'll make this short and sweet.
I have twin daughters and they're 2 years old. They talk quite a bit but not always complete sentences. The other day they had me laughing so hard and at the same time it made me think "am I bad influence on them?"
My kids love watching Sesame street, Telletubies, Barney, etc. One of the shows they like is Reading Rainbow. If you guys are familiar with that PBS show, the host of the show is this black guy, his name is Lamar. Every time the shows comes one and see Lamar they say right away "Papi, Reading Rainbow," and watch attentively.
It's cute, until I noticed a pattern the other day. The Bernie Mack show came on and my daughters see Bernie and scream "Papi, Reading Rainbow." Then we're watching the a different show and a black guy goes on the screen and my daughters again say "Papi, Reading Rainbow."
What does this tell me? All Black people look a like. Minorities always joke on how they all look a like and as you can see, it doesn't take a white prejudiced male to notice that. Here is another example.
We were watching TV the other day with my daughters and in support of Hispanic actors we patiently waited for the season premiere of The George Lopez show. The show comes on, George Lopez is on screen and my daughters scream "Look it's Papi." Oh damn, not me, why me? I'm hopping that's the end of that and was a simple mistake. Then the next day we're flipping through channels and we come across the movie Born in East LA with Cheech Marin. My daughters see Cheech and what do they scream? You guessed it "Look it's Papi."
So you see readership, not only all black people look a like but al Hispanics look alike too. It hurts more for me because my daughters see me every day, we play together, I feed them, I change their clothes, I buy their clothes, and yet they still confuse me with George Lopez and Cheech Marin.
You have to love their innocence, or maybe it's my bad influence on them.
Here's the Gold Nugget: Minorities, don't get mad at white people when they confuse you with another fellow black or fellow Hispanic person. It's true, we all look alike. By the way my Asian friends, you're not exempt from this, you too, look alike.
posted by Gold Nugget at 5:50 AM
7 Comments:
I think the best part of this whole post, is that the host of Reading Rainbow is actually named LeVar not Lamar. So I guess, not only do all black people look alike, but they all must be name Lamar as well.
7:59 AM
I must say that Goldnugget is not only a bad influence on children, but on me as well. Once I met him I started swearing like a sailor and making fun of handicapped old women. Then he got me on the "Degrading women" plan. As I his influence wore on me, the goldnugget just sat in a reclining chair, laughing. If you listened closely, you could even hear him say "phase 1, complete". Freakin rican is str8 Devious. Oh wait, I mean goldnugget! is str8 devious.
8:13 AM
Thank you Chardrian for the correction. See, goldnugget, why we all got to be named Lamar? Damn.
I do wonder if the same "they all look alike" stereotype aplpies to white people as well. Yesterday I was watching Regis and Kelly (yes Homer, sometimes I tune in.) Regis held up a magazine and said wow doesn't Cameron Diaz look great." It turns out that Cameron was not on the cover but some random model. Regis replied, "oops, well all these blonds look alike anyway." What's the appropriate response to this?
9:06 AM
Oh and one more thing...WHY ARE YOUR KIDS WATCHING SO MUCH DAMN TV??
9:09 AM
Lamar has a big dick . . . but you don't have to take my word for it.
12:01 PM
It's WHY Wednesday and I have not seen you on the show in forever and a day!
9:08 AM
this is the nature of learning. if you know anything about child psychology and how the brain works it does so with heuristics. Basically when we are small we see the world in simplified generalities, we try to fit everything into these generalities in order make sense of our world.
So a child will first see an animal and you tell them it is a "dog", they might start thinking all animals that walk on four feet are dogs and apply that same identification to "cats". The way to move forward and develop as a human being is to BE WRONG, make mistakes in your generalities and learn from it in order to specify further, differentiate more and become a better human being.
Stereotypes are natural, but it's nothing to celebrate being stuck in. As a parent you should be educating your children, not using their early develpmental stage to prove your simple tru-isms. I hope they have better sources of inspiration and learning than from T.V.
That said, I miss reading rainbow.
9:56 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home