Biographies and Blackface and Missing the Point

As part of their study about biographies, the kids in 2nd grade at X's school created a wax museum.  The kids created informational posters about their person and then on the night of the wax museum they dressed like their person and posed at their station.  Whenever someone came by and "pushed their button" (they had paper circles glued on a wristband) they would come "to life" and and give their biography (in the first person as if they were that person)

Which brings us to the issue of blackface.  X was Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  and could not understand why he couldn't make his skin darker.  And considering that he was in no way, shape or form making fun of Martin Luther King- I was hard pressed to explain why he couldn't in terms that an 8 year old would understand.  He said there was nothing wrong with being black so why couldn't he make himself black so people know he was Martin Luther King.  Despite the advice from several (Black) co-workers who said to let him do it- I just couldn't.  We did though dye his hair (temporarily) black.  

Here is Martin Luther King

But as I went around to the other Martin Luther King's (there were several) and the Rosa Parks (also several) I noticed that the kids really stuck only to the facts and didn't really mention the why of what King and Parks did.  And truthfully, initially that is what X did as well.  He presentation was along the lines of "I was born, I went to school, I was married"  with little mention of the context in which King did his work.  In fact, in most presentations there was only a little   not even one mention of race or justice or why Martin marched and Rosa sat.  Now I realize they are only 2nd graders but if you are old enough to recognize race you are old enough to start to talk about racial issues.  X and I talked about the why and he really started to understand the context.  And he began to understand the point of what they did.

Once he understood why King protested and gave his "I have a dream" speech he was able to talk about that in terms that 2nd graders could relate to.  But he didn't shy away from putting out there that what Martin protested was laws that kept Blacks from having the same rights as Whites.

I am proud not only of the speech he wrote but also of the fact he was able to talk about the issues in order to get other people to understand the unfairness also.  

Here is his speech (I taped this at home since on the tape from the "wax museum" the background noise is too loud to hear what he is saying)

I love the conviction in his voice-