What is the right answer?

As i was taking my son, (who i might add is almost 6 months old now, my how they grow.)

For a walk around the neighbourhood we live in, i was approached by the usual group of younger neighbourhood girls, who have taken quite a liking to my son.

They are always giggling and smiling at him, trying to get back something of the same response, wanting to hold him and asking the usual questions of :How old is he now? and can we play with him?

This has become somewhat of the norm while we take our afternoon walks, and Raishawn seems to like the attention, giving the girls his cutest gummy grin and trying to play with the beads in there braids.

It was when a question came up that i had not yet been asked and i doubt that it would be the last time i was asked it either.

The youngest girl, who was around the age of 5 asked me, "If i am his mummy" when i replied "Yes"

She then looked confused and exclaimed "Then why does he look the same as us and not the same as you"

She was reffering to the colour of our skin.

I wanted to answer this question right but was stumped on just how to do it, i mean sure i could state the obvious of what she already knew, "his daddy is black and i am white"

But it goes far deeper than that.

I didn't know how to explain it to her the right way, a way in which i didn't emphasise on black or white.

I wanted to tell her that it doesn't matter what colour you are.

But in a country were colour decides what friends you will have, were you will sit at lunchtime and ultimately what pay grade you will recieve*.

*(This is not my opinion, but that of a survey done on black men in America by the U.S dept of employment)

How could i tell her that.

I ended up explaining to her that Raishawn's daddy is Jamaican, which means the colour of his skin is black, and i am from Australia and the colour of my skin is white, So thats why Raishawn is lighter than his daddy but a lot darker than me, I told her that Raishawn is Bi-racial which means he is black AND white.

I also added that when people love each other the colour of there skin doesn't matter.

Now what she is told at home according to colour is none of my business but i hoped somewere down the line i wouldn't be approached by an angry mother wanting to know why a "white woman" was talking to her daughter about colour.

As i walked home i couldn't help but think that this was only the start of such questions, as i know when my son gets old enough and starts to recognise race etc, he or his friends will ask the same question.

I will teach my son the cultures of both of his races, so he will have knowledge and a good sense of who he is and where he came from.

I also want to instill into my son that he doesn't have to choose between Black OR white, he is black AND white. We may have different coloured skin but we are all the same and should be treated equally.

I can only hope that one day here in America this will be the case, that they will no longer ask you on government forms: Black OR white.

That when you fill out a birth Certificate for your bi-racial child you will no longer have to choose between 2 races: black OR white.

It will just be Black AND white. Equal.

We really have come so far from the era of one side for white and an opposite side for coloured, But we also have such a long way to go. More and more couples are dating and marrying out of there race and thus meaning there are more and more bi-racial babies being born.

I believe that since this is the case the old version of government forms etc should be changed and the choices on these forms should resemble that of its nation.