Confusing Holiday???

We knew there may have been some confusion about the meaning and significance of tomorrow's holiday going on in this family when Isaac approached me and said, "Mom, what am I supposed to do when all the white people are mean to me?"

"WHAT?! What white people? We don't usually describe people by skin color, Isaac. Who was mean to you?"

"Nobody. I just don't know what I'm supposed to do tomorrow when all the white people are mean to me?"

"Why would somebody be mean to you tomorrow? I am not sure what you're trying to say to me."

(Todd was standing there listening and trying to figure it out too by this point and I had to pick his jaw up off the floor and reattach it to his mouth......)

"Well tomorrow is MLK Jr Holiday and that is when white people are mean to people with brown skin and they make them sit in the back of the bus and stuff."

Oh my little lamb.

I get what you're trying to tell me now.

"Oh Isaac that happened a long time ago. Tomorrow we celebrate a man who helped end racism and mean things like that. He stood up for what was right.  Nobody is going to be mean to you tomorrow and if they are mean to you it's because they are broken and mean on the inside, not because there is anything wrong with the color of your skin."

I'm so sad that Isaac was confused and apparently dreading tomorrow. (Can't say that I blame him based on what he thought the holiday meant.) I'm pretty sure we cleared it up for him but I'm also a little worried that tomorrow when his siblings do or say something mean as siblings are want to do, he may retaliate by calling them "broken and mean on the inside." This could get interesting.....

But on the flip side, confusion or no confusion, I'm so happy that we get to honor a great man who changed the history of our world. A man who made it possible for me to have the awesome, albeit slightly confused, family that I have today.