I meant to post this last year, but I forgot. This is a picture that my daughter made in kindergarten. I found it in with some papers when I was cleaning her room and it just struck me right between the eyes. First, I thought it was all wrong: “What is that school teaching my daughter about Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr? I mean, she took away his whole essence, she’s stripped away his race, she’s missed the whole point …”
But my next thought was, “She made the picture to look like, well … it looks kind of like she looks, that’s why it has the light skin and blue eyes — she thinks of him as being just like her.” And that’s what I like about it. To her he’s a human being and a leader and to kids that age, in this day and age I think maybe race is irrelevant. When I was a kid the thing for me about MLK was his African-Americanness, or as we would say in those days, his “blackness.” I’m proud that my now 8 year old daughter thinks of him first about what he has done, his faith, his leadership and his humanity. In other words she is judging him “by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin.” Yeah, that’s an intentional paraphrase. Anyway, that’s what I like about it.
We’ll be at the march Monday, as we have been most years that little girl has been around. Here’s the schedule of Duluth MLK events, I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to join us. We’ll be the ones handing out a thick stack of “Love Wins” stickers courtesy of our friends at Hillside Church.
I’d love some discussion on this just be a little gentle … this is my kid we’re talking about.