Mother-Son Convo: Race & Identity, Part II

Jacob and I get together again in Episode 26 (Apple, Spotify, Google Play) to continue our conversation, this time after watching the documentary 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed on HBOMax (newly renamed Max) to further discussion about race and identity.  Jacob and his brothers are Swedish, Irish, Eskimo, Native American (just a smidge), and Black.  It’s clear that during our conversation, despite my efforts to ensure that my children can correctly identify themselves racially/ethnically, Jacob is confused about the name of his grandmother’s tribe, Inupiaq, and his grandfather’s country of origin, Finland.  Though, interestingly enough, he’s intrigued to think of himself as a second generation immigrant, though he doesn’t think it counts.  Should I be alarmed, or is this just a result of the assimilation process?

We discussed my efforts to help my sons be successful by listening to them when they expressed interests in activities, even when it was outside of my own comfort zone.  The unintended consequence of which meant my sons had far more in common with their White peers than their Black peers.  This led to a conversation about access and opportunity.  How do kids’ programs recruit diverse participants in an equitable manner?

It’s important to emphasize this is not a scripted conversation. In fact, unlike my typical episode preparations, we didn’t even use a discussion guide.  Instead, it’s simply a mother and son having a conversation about a difficult topic, sometimes discovering for the first time, what we think and how we feel about the complexity of an issue that impacts both of us.