I just have a short rant. Ok, well, I can’t promise that, but I feel like crap tonight so…
Fil was over tonight and repeated something that I’ve actually forgotten to mention previously. He was telling me of when he took Baby and his other grand-daughter to Wally World. When they got excited at seeing Dora, the Explorer dolls he said “Look at all the illegal aliens! They’re everywhere! Now they’re making them dolls.” Well, this, of course, pissed me the fuck off. What did I say the first time (and was forced to repeat)?
“How do you know Dora’s illegal? Because she speaks Spanish? How do you know she’s not Puerto Rican or was born in a nice hospital in Tulsa?”
No one likes their stereotypes fucked with and Fil is no different. He began to insist that the majority of Spanish speakers are illegal and so he’s right by default. “Wrong,” I say”You cannot be right by default because you don’t know enough about her to make that assumption.”
I was angry because he was trying to instill his own narrow-minded stereotypes in my daughter and I won’t have that shit. I don’t want her looking at people and assuming she knows everything about them. And I especially don’t want her looking at someone of a different ethnic background and assuming that they’re bad. I have never allowed that kind of shit around my kids and I’m not about to start now.
What the fuck is wrong with people?
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Don’t worry–your daughter will most likely pick up your values, not her grandfather’s. Mine just laugh at the dopey things my mother says. She isn’t a bigot at heart, but she says really stupid things sometimes–like Asians bring in all the illegal drugs in their suitcases. WTF??
Sorry…but I kinda cracked a smile. I mean, the argument was about Dora being illegal, right?
I agree with you though, about stereotyping for the most part. Not that I’m innocent in that department so I won’t be casting the first stone.
Paula,
I was just blowing steam, I guess. It annoys the hell out of me that he does stuff like that. I guess he probably knows that and uses it as ammo. At any rate, I’ve been teaching Baby new words…you know like “Gracias”, “Papa Fritas” and “Tio”. That ought to get someone’s drawers in a bunch.
Slick,
Hi and welcome! Yeah, I can see why it would be a little funny. It was the fact that he was casting her in that light simply because she speaks Spanish. Not to worry, though, I don’t teach her hill-billy jokes either. Just to be fair.:)
Dang, for all he/we knows Dora was born in Cornbread, Alabama and her parent kept true to her roots and taught her spanish.
Sheesh!
Hey Jenny!!
Um..I’m going to guiltily admit that I giggled…but in fairness…I laugh at redneck jokes too.
You FIL is an asshole (gotta say it like the baby in “Meet The Foulkers”)
Hey, Awaiting!
How goes it? I said she may have been born in some pretty American hospital making her a true citizen and he just kind of looked at me with a twitchy eye.
Nikki,
It’s not so much the jokes. It’s that he really is trying to instill those kind of stereotypes in her. His own daughter remarked once to me that her student’s name was Tawana and “well, you can guess who her parents were”. I didn’t like that either, especially considering my daughter is black.
I do, however, appreciate a good joke at the expense of pretty much anyone.
Jali,
He’s backward, but generally has a good heart. I’m trying to change him and perhaps get him to vote Democrat. I don’t think it’s working, though.
it’s kinda funny because we’re talking about a Dora doll here, but I understand what you mean completely. What a strange thing to say to a kid.