Immigration Day

I'm not mom of the year.  Let's go ahead and get that out of the way.  It's likely I'll never BE mom of the year and I'm on my third kid. I've got plenty of experience with the parenting thing but I still screw up a lot.  For instance, I can't seem to keep up with the various school events taking place all the time.  Yesterday I waited in the car line to pick Charlie up and got completely annoyed that he didn't come to the car  when they called his number only to find out after he finally got in the car that he was in Chorus practice.  I should have picked him up at 4:00-- not 2:30.  I sent him back to practice and went to waste some time since by then, 4:00 was only an hour away.

This morning when I dropped Charlie off, I realized I forgot something else: Immigration Day.

With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us, teachers everywhere are dispensing lessons about how we all came to America.  Charlie studied the story of the first Thanksgiving last week and we talked about the finer points at home.  He blew me away at one point when he said something about the tolerance and kindness the Native Americans and Pilgrims showed one another, and that somehow it seems Americans want to forget that part of the story.

About two weeks ago we got a note in that dreaded Wednesday Folder asking parents to dress their kids up as Immigrants for school today.  The suggested outfits were long dresses for girls, long pants, vests and hats for boys.  I immediately wondered if this attire actually represented the majority of immigrants who came to our country?  I think they were trying to represent a certain time-period in history, turn of the century-type styles perhaps; but it seems like they left a huge gap in there--a gap that took race or country of origin into consideration.  Charlie wondered too, if all immigrants who came through New York City in the late 1800's and early 1900's were all dressed in the "uniform" of the day.

I seriously doubt it.  A stark reminder of that thought hit me like a brick when I dropped my boy off this morning in his regular school clothes and saw an African American kid standing on the sidewalk wearing shorts and a sweatshirt with some sports team logo on the front.  Ugh, I felt bad for that kid, because today while all the hoopla about immigrants is going on and all the little white boys are dressed like Jockeys getting ready to sprint across the finish line on horses named things like "Lucky Penny" and "Uncle Jimmy's Gambling Problem," he's going to be thinking, "That's not how my people came to America."

This dude was a Greek Soldier

A German Immigrant 

In fact, many people from countries all over the world did not show up here instantly Americanized.  Most people came here with whatever they owned on their backs, and that meant the clothes that were the  cultural norm for that time period in their countries of origin.  Out of curiosity I did some Google research.  I found this awesome link with actual photos of real immigrants from that era.  None of them were dressed like Jockeys, by the way.

An Algerian Man

How I wished I had spoken up two weeks ago with a gentle reminder that not everyone who came to America in those days looked the same.  A reminder that one of the things that has always made our country so amazing is the blending of cultures and customs from all over the world.  There was a time when differences were celebrated, when people were curious and fascinated by not only the attire of their fellow Americans, but wanted to learn more about their religions, their beliefs about life and death and family.  They wanted to taste the rich array of foods from around the world and they respected the differences between themselves and others.

My son's school has turned this event into a white-washed look-alike parade today.  It's really a shame they aren't getting a chance to learn about the real way people came here.

Perhaps worst of all is the complete omission, after months of studying the Civil War, of how many African Americans ended up in our country.  They didn't arrive on our shores with high hopes and lofty dreams.  They came here bewildered and terrified, against their will.  They were torn apart from their families, treated as less than human, used as whipping posts for the white elite as they were used like objects--tools for the use of making the rich man richer.  By the time these immigrants were coming through Ellis Island at the turn of the century, slaves were free but life for the African American was anything but easy.  While we welcomed people with white skin into our country with open arms and afforded them all the privileges of whiteness, people of color still languished, treated as sub-human, unworthy to even share the same restroom or water fountain with white people.

I'm glad I forgot about Immigration Day. I wouldn't have dressed my kid up like a tiny Americanized version of an Irishman anyway.  I would have probably dug through his family roots to find that tattooed, shirtless German guy and made him look more like the real deal.  I'm sure his school would appreciate a shirtless tattooed Charlie showing up for class today--well they should appreciate it anyway.

We have glossed over the ugly parts of our history long enough.  It's sad to me that an elementary school would treat the amazingly diverse arrival of millions of Americans from all over the world by dressing them all up to look the same.  I wish instead, they had taken the pains to portray our immigrants in a realistic way.  We really missed a chance here, to teach our children about the value of diversity and acceptance.  We missed the chance to describe the ugly, heart wrenching, life-altering struggles of the actual people who made America what it is--or was, or still needs to keep working toward.

Nope.  I'm not Mom Of The Year.  I never will be; but, I wish that just this once, I had remembered an event and dressed my kid accordingly.


The above photos were borrowed from The Washington Post.  You can see more photos and read their article on how Immigrants looked when they showed up on Ellis Island by clicking the above link or clicking this one: Washington Post