Lily then proceeded to describe in great detail of the four children (including herself) whose skin was darkest, lightest, etc. It was obvious that she had given this *a lot* of thought.
I mentioned to Lily that Jake and Luke were both born in Guatemala and that Sasha's parents were born in India. Lily ran to her room and got her globe so I could show her where Guatemala and India are. This lead to a discussion about how people from different areas of the world have different skin colors.
For the next several hours Lily and I discussed skin color/race on and off. Lily is amazingly perceptive and insightful. I was surprised how much Lily seemed to understand. I always want to remember that conversation. It was so sweet and innocent...and complicated.
Here's a little snippet of that conversation, "Mommy, if Jake and I had a baby that grew inside my body...but was born in the United States...would the baby look like me or you?"
I answered that the baby would look like she and Jake. Lily looked at me with a quizzical expression and said, "Even if the baby is born in the United States???"
Obviously, we still have some ground to cover. :-)
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