Clearly, Chris Hayes isn’t the only one making an idiot of himself at MSNBC. Melissa Harris-Perry and her panel of alleged comedians decided that making fun of the race of the adopted grandchild of former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was fair game. I am appalled and disgusted by this.
My sister-in-law is a saint. She helped raise over 100 foster children, and she adopted two of them. They happen to be black. My step-sister had 3 children. They’re biracial. Her daughter has a biracial daughter, too. I love them all dearly, and I am proud to be their aunt. When I look at my family, I don’t look at their skin color. I could care less what level of melanin happens to be in their skin. I don’t even see adopted nephews as having different blood relatives generally. The mothers of the two children did the right thing allowing my sister to adopt my nephews, as hard as that decision may have been. I occasionally notice the furtive looks my step-sister and sister-in-law get having children of a different race. Fortunately, I never saw any adult make fun of my nieces and nephews for being black or biracial. I never saw any adult make fun of my sister-in-law or step-sister (both of whom I gladly call sisters) for raising children of a different race.
Not until the MSNBC show last Sunday, that is.
Both my sisters happen to be fairly conservative. They did not choose to bear or adopt children of other races in order to add diversity to the Republican party or whatever conservative cause that MSNBC decides is OK to mock this minute. My sisters love children. They wanted a lot of children in their lives. My sister who fostered all those kids and then adopted two of them has made a monumental sacrifice in her life. She helps children who have lived in such dire circumstances that the state was forced to take the children away before their mothers killed them through violence or neglect. These are children who have been through so many horrors in their brief lives that when we hear their stories, you and I are forced to squeeze our eyes closed to shut out the images and hope not to vomit. The children are often traumatized both inside and out, and they require extraordinary amounts of treatment and time to recover. My sister showers them with love, and the children, fostered or adopted, have thrived in her care.
Along came Melissa Harris-Perry, Pia Glenn, and Dean Obeidallah. Apparently, they found it hilarious to mock the Romney family for welcoming a child who isn’t white into their family. Instead of rejoicing with the Romneys that they have another child, or taking some time to talk about the challenges of interracial adoptions, or discussing how desperately these children need help, or exploring how badly we need more foster parents, they laughed. How convenient that they forgot President Obama was raised by a white mom and taken in and loved by his white grandparents. Did they laugh at that? No, they wouldn’t have the temerity to so much as smirk. Making fun of children of Republicans, however, is perfectly acceptable.
That fact that they think mocking any child is revolting. I won’t support any MSNBC sponsors, and I certainly won’t be supporting anything that Harris-Perry, Glenn, or Obeidallah do. Any person or organization willing to support that kind of behavior doesn’t deserve my hard-earned dollars.
We can do something positive about this, however. I encourage each of you to look into foster parenting and adopting. Consider fostering or adopting a child yourself and check out the Child Welfare Information Gateway. If you don’t have the resources to do that, then help out the many great organizations like AdoptUSKids.org, your local child welfare agency, or the many religious organization that help foster kids and families that foster or adopt. They’ll welcome your time, money, and talents, and your help will make the difference in the life of a child.
Confessions of a Geeky Mom 