Apparently I have a blog.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything.

But something stuck me as worth noting today.

It is clear that we still have racial issues in our society and country.  But we’ve come a long way.  How do I know?  I went to my son’s (Matthew) biography fair today.  He was dressed as Jackie Robinson.  He looked pretty great all dressed up in uniform complete with a Brooklyn cap. 

But he was hardly the only one dressed up.  All of the students were dressed as the person that they had chosen for their biography.  The students had been free to choose their own subject for the biographical project as long as they had read a book on the person.  There were notable historical figures as well as pop icons.  I saw Julia Childs, Elvis, Marco Polo, Thomas Jefferson, Mother Theresa, Ronaldo, David Beckham, John Stockton, Walt Disney, Marie Curie and many, many more.

But I took special note of a few students.  I saw that Martin Luther King and Barak Obama were white.  There was a black Abraham Lincoln and another Martin Luther King who was Hispanic.  There was a white Asian video game creator and a white Sacajawea.  I saw girls dressed as Wilbur Wright, Lincoln, and Roberto Clemente.

And I realized that none of these students seemed to care that they looked like the individuals that they were representing.  This is a positive step.  There are undoubtedly many more steps that need to be taken, but for today, it was fun to walk in a room of third graders who didn’t care about the color or ethnicity of their character---they just cared about the chance to portray someone that they found interesting and that they admired.