bath time

While I had Ladybug in the tub, a captivated audience, combing out her hair, she decided to have a serious conversation.  Maybe I was the captivated audience.

Ladybug: When I have a baby will my baby be African?
Mama: Yes.  No. I mean... What exactly are you asking?
Ladybug: Will my baby be Ethiopian?
Mama:  Yes.  Any child you give birth to will be a least part Ethiopian.
Ladybug:  So doesn't that make my child African?
Mama: Well yes.  I mean, black people who live in America are called African-American.  But it doesn't mean they have ever been t Africa.  It just means that have some relatives you use to be from Africa.
Ladybug:  Well how did their relatives get here?
Mama: A long time ago people went to Africa and took them. 
Ladybug: Like you brought me to America?
Mama: No.  I adopted you.  A long time ago people went to Africa and took people and brought them to America to work for them.
Ladybug: Were they part of their family?
Mama: No.
Ladybug: Did they get paid for working?
Mama: No.
Ladybug: Well how did they eat?
Mama: I don't really know.
Ladybug:  Did they get table scraps?
Mama:  I don't really know.
Ladybug: Were they nice to the African people?
Mama: Not always.
Ladybug: What kinds of things would they do to them?
Mama: Well they didn't always see the black people are "people".  Sometimes they saw them as property.  So since the Africans were not "people" the white people didn't think they had to be nice to the black people.
Ladybug: Would the white people hurt the Africans?
Mama: Sometimes.
Ladybug: I don't want to talk about this anymore.

I have a feeling these conversations will be more and more difficult.

Mean Mama