Monday, June 05, 2006

boys don't dance

Last night
as my son was going to bed
he told my wife that he no longer wanted to dance
Dancing has always been his love
his light
his freedom.
A boy a school
has been teasing him, bullying him
boys don't dance.
Do you want to dance she asked him?
Yes. Defiant. Unequivocal. Absolute.
I love it. I am going to be famous. I am going to be Simba.
I am a choreographer already mommy!

I told him when he awoke -eyes already serious with the memory of the teasing
That many people say things
out of ignorance - even grown ups say stupid things
Bush tells us that we should not be married
- but if we listened we would not be a family
some people say that people of different races should not live together, love together
-but then we would not have this amazing love - more powerful than most

Follow your heart I tell him
Do what you love, I am here

How do I protect him?
I can teach confidence - but the world tries to take it away
I can teach faith, Karma, believe, pride
But what do the other parents teach to their children?

I went to his school today
wanting to scream at this child, I wanted to break him
this child who hurt my child
but in truth, it is his parents who are at fault.

They are just creating another another brick in the chain of hate. Growing the seems of ignorance from the root up. at my son's expense.

Zion had one playdate with him - last week
When my partner arrived The parents were smoking cigarettes in the room with the children
Supervising them playing with "toy" machine guns simply clueless

What more can I do?
From now on, playdates are at our house
From now on I ask more questions
more then I ever thought I would have to

Zion - you will fly
keep on dreaming
we love you
and we will always be in the front row!


1 Comments:

At February 13, 2007 12:09 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi, my son is biracial and is now in his eighth year of dance. He is 13 now. He has been competing for seven years. He has gone through the teasing and the torment from the uninformed kids, but it just seemed to fuel his desire to be true to himself. He doesn't get quite as much teasing now since he took some dvds and videos of his dance competitions to class and the teacher played them. Now, that he is in middle school and they are starting to have school dances, he finds himself surrounded by girls that want to dance with him. And a couple times his guy friends even formed a circle around him as he danced, yelling, clapping, and throwing money to him. Hope Zion keeps his dreams alive!

 

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