Blogalicious 2010 was amazing.
First, I need to say huge kudos to the women of the MamaLaw Group: Justice Fergie, Justice Jonesie, and Justice Ny. The venue, the panelists, the keynote speakers, the sponsors, and the conversations were amazing! Thanks so much for including me.
I also want to say a big Thank You to GM, for sponsoring the panel on which I spoke. Thanks for bringing me to the event, for being so enthusiastic and fun, both on the panel and off, and for your commitment to inclusion and diversity.
If I try to do a run-down of everything I loved about Blogalicious, I’ll forget something or someone important, so please know that I do mean you when I say this.
- I loved reconnecting with friends I’ve known either from previous conferences, the internet, or in some cases, for years and years of real life.
- I loved finally meeting people I’ve been trying to meet in real life. Yes, PunditMom, you get a special shout out here. (My single specific goal at BlogHer10 was to meet her; I had half a dozen people who know us both trying to help! And it still didn’t work.)
- I loved meeting new people, and had some fabulous conversations.
I also thought that Blogalicious did a great job of staying true to their core value of being a conference to educate and empower and entertain women of color, especially African American women, while expanding into a celebration of diversity in social media.
And I am still being charmed by my favorite piece of swag, (Smith alumna) Ernessa Carter’s book 32 Candles. Ernessa, what I don’t understand is why you weren’t there with the book, signing it and hanging out with us! And I’m not alone in wondering that!
Speaking of race and diversity, at 4, Noah is noticing more and more things that are related to race and class. I’m not always sure about how to handle them.
For example, yesterday night, on the way home from an evening program at his school, Noah announced, “Mom, there are way more brown people than pink people in this city.”
The children’s school is in a central city neighborhood that has a sprinkling of white and Hmong people, but is largely African-American, so this seemed like a fair observation. I answered, “Is this something you saw with your eyes?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you go on a walk at school today, where you noticed that?”
“No. Just now. And at McDonald’s. All the McDonald’s people are brown. None of them are pink.” (Insert a sad little boy voice.) “Why aren’t there any pink McDonald’s people, Mama?”
Yes, we ate at McDonald’s before going back to school for an evening program. The McDonald’s in question is about 2 blocks from school, and our party, which included another white family from school, included all of the white people within view. (Except for the happy meal toys, a white girl doll and a white Star Wars character image on a skateboard. But this is not the moment for a critical race theory analysis of the happy meal toys.)
Anyway, it sounded to me like Noah’s heart was about to break as he concluded that he could never work at a McDonald’s because of his skin color. So instead of getting into an analytical answer, I assured him that as a teenager, I once worked at a McDonald’s.
Noah asked, “What color were you then, Mama?”
“The same color I am now. People stay pretty much the same color their whole lives.”
He thought about that for awhile, and then moved on to focus on the thrilling idea that I’d once worked at a McDonald’s, back in “olden times.”
