Summer Watermelon Editing

The previous owners of our property raised amazing melons in this sandy soil--cantaloupe and watermelon--so we decided to raise some as well.  We had fun cutting it a new way like some new friends showed us.  And you know the children love the watermelon.  It's such a classic summer food, and along with sweet corn, it's the kind of food we seem to find necessary to take adorable pictures of children eating.

But you know a crazy thing. . .I subconsciously only took pictures of my white children eating the watermelon.

I am part of an online group which discusses transracial adoption, and the black people have been very vocal about us white adoptive parents not perpetuating stereotypes by dressing our black children in monkey or watermelon clothes, or taking pictures of our black children eating watermelon (especially on the rind) or fried chicken.

I have mixed feelings about this, and am still processing it (although I obviously have internalized it to some degree as I don't remember consciously choosing not to take pictures of Kiana or Tyrell with the watermelon--I only noticed it when looking back through the pictures).  Mostly I think it's sad that the innocence of childhood is tainted by ugly racial slurs and stereotypes.

I never thought of these sorts of things with my first three children.  Briana wore an adorable little summer dress with a watermelon collar.  I called Destry a monkey all the time as he climbed constantly--trees, the swingset, up on the roof. . .Adorable little monkey clothes were all the rage when Easton was a baby, so I have many pictures of him wearing monkey clothes.  We even had a monkey dress-up costume!  We love fried chicken and eat it frequently (hey, we raise our own chickens and frying it is the yummiest way to eat it) and watermelon is probably my favorite fruit, so most of my kids will look back on pictures of their childhood to see themselves making a mess eating such things.

But now I hesitate to take these pictures.  Just one of many things that never even crossed our minds when we adopted black children. . .