White Boy in a Black Land

AUGUST 8, 2011 BY TOM MATLACK LEAVE A COMMENT (EDIT)

I travelled to Kenya with my wife Elena and six year-old son Cole. A minority for the first time in my life, it made me think differently about race and my own racism. As Kenya is a former English colony, which became independent in 1964, I am sure

there are white Kenyans, but I literally never saw one during my entire visit. At the Nairobi airport on the way home, I did notice a number of inter-racial couples with beautiful babies with light brown skin everywhere. I stopped counting when I got into the double digits. Everywhere I went, very-dark-skinned men and women kept welcoming me home, like I was a Jew returning to Israel. I am neither black nor Jewish, so at first, the kindness confused me. I kept trying to imagine walking north on the East Side of Manhattan, past 110th Street, and the residents of Harlem taking a look at my blond hair and blue eyes, welcoming me home. Jambo! Everyone we met cheerfully greeted us with the Swahili hello. Our drivers, waiters, and our guide Protus took a particular shining to Cole. Theyd bear-hug him whenever they saw him. This made me think of a recent column by

Shawn Taylor, a black man with a lightskinned daughter, about how, at the playground, hes treated like a leper instead of the proud father he is. In one recent incident, Taylor was playing with his daughter and another little blonde girl. The blonde girl fell to the ground by accident, and her mother assumed the worst about Taylor. She calling him a nigger in front of his daughter. Taylors kept his cool, but he had to comfort his daughter, who was in tears. Recently, a man drove a white van into our community back home. He tried to convince a young boy to get in the van, but the boy ran away, screaming. It left the community in a state of paranoia. All of the parents gave their kids the donttalk-to-strangers talks. So after Protus, a large black man, took our son in his arms the moment he met him, Cole asked, I thought I wasnt suppose to talk to strangers. Is he okay? Yes, I said, he is a very sweet man who is just being nice. But inside I wondered what I would say if a black man on the

playground back home did the same thing. Read the rest of the story HERE