No Cake Today

Beckett learned about Martin Luther King, Jr last week in school and came home wanting to bake a cake for his birthday. I really like cake, but that’s not what we are going to do today.

We’re going to read Freedom On The Menu by Carole Boston Weatherford, because here’s the truth, I don’t have a big parenting moment that I can share, or should share, about Martin Luther King, Jr Day. This is not our story. Today I need to model to them that, at least most of the time, the first thing we do to offer love and respect is to listen to other people’s stories.

Carole Boston Weatherford’s book is not directly about Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s about the Greensboro Four: David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. (Jibreel Khazan), and Joe McNeil. Four Black students from NC A&T University that staged a sit-in at the “White’s only” lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, NC, refusing to leave until they were fairly served. This book is particularly special to me, because my family lived in Greensboro for a decade. When we moved away, George Floyd’s face was still painted on the Woolworth’s window. The Greensboro Four sparked a movement of sit-ins across the South, of young people working bravely for equality. This book is told from the perspective of a young Black girl named Connie, who lives in Greensboro during this time. During her story, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr visits Greensboro and her family attends the speech. Connie said that she didn’t understand much, but “it sounded as if he believed God was on our side.” That line haunts me. 

There’s so many nuances to that statement that can be parsed out in our homes and places of worship and relationships. The bottom line to me, though, is that my kids will know that we stand and act bravely on the side of equality and justice. I want my kids to listen long enough to know that the best way to honor Dr. King is to love in big, brave ways when life calls for it, even if that means today we just listen. Today we just listen, so that tomorrow we can make sure everyone gets a seat at the metaphorical counter. Then, by all means, buddy, we will order your cake.

#freedomonthemenu

#carolebostonweatherford

#mlkjrday

I'm Going To Do Better

“‘Do they know they’re in the wrong place?’ I whispered. ‘Some rules have to be broken.’ Mama whispered back.”

I’ve never been in a situation where I had to break the rules to exercise my right for life, freedom or justice.

We read Freedom On The Menu this week by Carole Boston Weatherford, a picture book about the Greensboro Four at the Woolworth’s lunch counter, the movement kicking off the sit-ins. Beckett was thoroughly confused. He understood that the black people were treated very unfairly, and he didn’t want that to happen. He didn’t understand the protesting, despite the fact that this kid has been to quite a few protests since November 2016. His life, his freedom and his future success has never been on the line. Blissfully unaware, my little white boy, because the world has never been working against him.

Because of that, the protest is where his cognitive dissonance began, because the good guys in the story were breaking the rules.

The protestors were disrupting the peace.

The protestors were even being put in jail.

That’s when I began to see on such a base level the critical nature of the Civil Rights Movement and, now, the Black Lives Matter movement.

Protesting is loud, protesting is angry, protesting demands something break. There’s a disruption to the order of things that has to happen, and I see that real change won’t happen quietly or without literally and figuratively shattering reality as we know it. Although I know that I will never truly understand, I admire so deeply the incredible courage of these movements. I so admire the people that unite with bravery to disrupt the peace in order to be heard, to ignite change. This is not a distant past to which us white people can shake our heads and proclaim we would be on the right side of history. These horrors are right now. They are today.

I am going to do my part to respond with love in a braver and more courageous way. I am going to do better. As parents, we’re going to raise our boys to do better.

#carolebostonweatherford #childrensliterature #blacklivesmatter