On race and rappers (and gold chains)

With my and Lester's permission, The Baltimore Sun published a version of my blog post about Dean, the hospital ER and the rapper comment.

If you're not sick of it yet, you can read it here.

I was worried a little bit about the backlash I'd surely receive from commenters, both the actual racists in the world, and the ninnies who enjoy judging people's parenting. But I thought that the point of the commentary might resonate with some people --and perhaps do some good -- so I put my reservations aside, closed my eyes and let 'er rip.

Since then, I have been amazed at how magnanimous and grateful, supportive and understanding the response has been. My original blog post received more pageviews than anything else I've ever written, by nearly 10 times (OK, that's not hard, since like 10 people read my posts everyday). The editor of the Parenting blog sent me a note showing that the article has been among the top-viewed and most popular articles on the site. And people have been sharing the Sun's link all over Facebook -- people I don't even know are sharing it -- and discussing what happened to me and Dean, and what it all means.

And surprisingly, most people, even if they don't 100-percent agree, have been congenial and thoughtful about it. Even the comments on the Sun's post didn't make me want to vomit.

The most touching thing that happened was that a co-worker (white, with no children) came to me and quietly told me how much the post meant to her, how she and her husband talked about it at home and felt like they'd learned something they hadn't considered before. We shared a moment, the two of us, that was heartfelt and revelatory. I feel like we're closer now.

And last night, after watching the thing take on a life of its own on social networks, she sent me this note, which made me feel all goosebumpy:

"This is the start of something, woman. Your words are moving people, causing change."

I don't know if that's true, but I do think the fact that people are talking about this is important, somehow. And I hope some good does come of it.

Meanwhile, because I can't stay serious for very long -- and because you HAVE to have a sense of humor about these kinds of things or else it just gets too darn heavy -- please consider this.

After all the fuss I made about toddlers-as-rappers, yesterday my sister called me, horrified, because her MIL inexplicably thought it was a good idea to buy Matty the one thing that all self-respecting rappers need: A gold chain.

Hahhahaha!
AH-HAHhahahaaaa! Whooooo. ROFL, for real.
 
Then she made my sister get his pictures taken in it. Haahahahaa! I don't know why but this cracks me up. Of all the things to give an 11-month-old....Really?

Anyway, we'll burn this photo when Matty applies to medical school.