Teenagers of different ethnicities
I’ve always loved living here in DC. We are surrounded by people from other countries and other languages. I’ve mentioned before that our church has members from over 25 nations, and the public school system has students from more than 157 countries speaking 150 languages.
It’s awesome.
My children have friends from literally all over the world. It’s not like they “don’t see color.” They are quite aware of differences in skin color, accent, faith, but in the same way they are aware of differences in eye color. They know what the practical applications of these differences are, like a friend who is not allowed to attend a sleepover or a friend who can’t eat certain foods.
Colleges come to recruit students, and it’s hard to be impressed at a non-white student percentage of 30-35 when MCPS is nearly 75% non-white. Our children are shocked when they go elsewhere for college and are suddenly surrounded by Caucasians.
And until now I thought there was no downside to this.
A friend of one of my kids was accepted at a prominent university in the South with a student body that is 84% white. He is Asian, and found life there very difficult at first. He felt like people were staring, whispering, even avoiding him, and perhaps they were. But when you’ve spent your whole life in a place where diversity is celebrated, where your ethnicity is no more important than your shoe size, the way a lot of the rest of the country views can feel like cold water thrown in your face.
And though our kids may get a painful dose of reality when they first leave the DC bubble, I still wouldn’t change anything.
Revelation 7.9