Talking to Kids about MLK

Every year I find myself blogging about this, but every year I continue to be fascinated by it. I'm dragging you all along for the ride.

We talk about social justice a lot in our house. It's a topic I'm very passionate about and if I impart nothing else to my children, I want them to have a clear understanding of what is right and wrong.

Sunday night Jack and I watched the "I have a dream" speech. He sat for 16 minutes staring at the screen and sucking his thumb. I tried my best to paraphrase during periods of extended applause, but it's a lot to explain.

Last night as we drove home from school, I asked Jack how he liked the speech. "Good," he said. Then I asked if he understood it. "Not really."

I went into a long rant, one of about 145 that he has had to endure over his five years. It went something like this:

Me: "....See, Dr. King believed that everyone should be treated equally, regardless of what color their skin was."
Jack: "Why were people not treated the same?"
M: "Because the history in our country had been to treat people with brown skin differently, and like they weren't as good as people with peach skin."
J: "Why?"
M: "Well, that goes back a long way. Back to way early-on in our country's history. We had lots of hard work to do on our farms, so we brought people over from Africa and made them do the work."
J: "And we paid them?"
M: "No, we didn't pay them. And we were REALLY mean to them. But then Abraham Lincoln came along and decided that we were being really mean to those people, so he set the slaves free. That's the good thing we remember him for." (admittedly watered down)
J: "So why weren't they equal then?"
M: "Well, because we had laws that said that even though there weren't slaves anymore, African Americans weren't equal to white people."
Ryker: "We go to neighbors' house?"
M: "No Ryker, we're not going to the neighbors' house. They are all sick. Anyway Jack, that is why Martin Luther King had to work so hard. He believed those laws should go away, that we should have new laws that said that everyone would be treated the same. He worked very hard for that."
J: "Harder than Abraham Lincoln?"
M: "Ummm, good question. No, I wouldn't say he worked harder than Abe Lincoln. They each accomplished a lot."
R: "We eat dinnuh?"
M: "Yes Ryk, we'll eat dinner."
J: "Well why did they shoot him?"
M: "Because .... yes, Ryker, we'll eat dinner, I promise .... because they were afraid of ...."
R: interrupting "BUS!!!!!!!!! BIG BUS!!!!!!!! MOMMA YOOKIT! BIG BUS!!!!!!!!!!!!"
M: "...yes Ryker, that's a big bus. I see it! Anyway Jack, because that man was afraid of what Dr. King was doing, and thought that if he killed him, all black people would lose the hope that Dr. King was giving them all, and that they would stop fighting for their rights....yes Ryker, I did see the bus. It was nice."
R: "Hope? Why?"
M: not sure what the question was, but pleased that Ryk was entering our grown-up conversation "He helped people believe that things would get better for them. He gave them HOPE."
R: "Oh. Okay."
J: "I wish I had been there. I would have put up a big metal thing to stop the bullet. Or I would have crawled REALLY QUIETLY up and taken the gun from him. But I wouldn't have shot him."

Then the conversation was over and he had moved on to whining about why he HAD to eat SPAGHETTI instead of waffles. The brain of a five year old.