Monday, October 24, 2011

Pride or Prejudice?



I have to preface this next part of my post by writing about a new game my kids have started playing...they started out by "calling" cars as they pass us on the road--each one of my kids tries to "call" the coolest car--which I guess means that in a perfect world somewhere far away, they have this secret stash of "cool" cars. The game has now evolved to include anything and everything--the other day, Tessa "called" the Oquirrh Mountain Temple--after which we promptly had a lesson in the car about reverence for sacred things :).
So, keeping this game in mind--the following conversation actually took place :
Christopher: "I call all the food in the world."
Carter: " Well (pronounced wool) bud, some of the food in the whole world is gross."
Christopher: "Then I'll just give all the gross food to the Indians."
(he looks around as though he realizes that statement is somehow wrong--then stammers)
Christopher: "I mean the Utes--ya, the Ute Indians."
I was, of course, laughing hysterically (trying to be quiet) in the front seat. We had just had a conversation about mascots and what a Ute was--we are big-time BYU fans at our house and have thoroughly indoctrinated our children--so Christopher had just learned that the Utes were a tribe of Indians that are a part of Utah history--and that the University of Utah has named their mascot after them.
So now as mother, what do I do? Is he just declaring his loyalty to the Cougars? Does he have some racial biases that have been suppressed until now? It's hard to know sometimes what exactly goes through a child's mind--he's definitely heard his father declare all out hatred for "the Utes"--how is he to interpret that. So, in wanting to please his father and "outsmart" his older brother in their new game--I think he'd probably say it's a little bit of each--perhaps both pride and prejudice.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is SUPER funny to me that Carter would be the one to point out that there is gross food in this world! And, I'm sorry, there is no use in trying to teach your kids to be politically correct when it comes to those stinkin' Utes! I vote "yes" to sending them ALL the gross food in the world! Your kiddos are "true blue" and have been from birth! And there's nothin' wrong with that! GO COUGS!