I wonder if Toni Morrison believed she would live in a time when an African American man that defined the ultimate "look" for young boys. As my son looks forlornly at his thin straight blonde hair and Slavic looks, he longs for African ancestors.
As anyone with young children and particularly adolescent males can tell you, this Hollween everyone wants to be Barack. The masks are sold out in every Party City and Holoween store and even online. Now, having worked in costumes Off Broadway for several years after college I was able to convince my son that if he really wanted to be Barack Obama for his Holloween dance at school he should, it's an easy sostume. Hmmm he said wanting to be poolite but not knowing how to tell me that I just didn't get it. We were treading around a landmine: or were we?
I said the costume is pretty easy;Barack wears almost a uniform on the campaign trail; white shirt, blue tie, dark pants or kakhis, dress shoes, slightly battered from galavanting cross country. "But, ..." Long silence. "Mom, my hair, my eyes...." "Oh ." I replied. Okay your eyes, well I can't do anything about pale blue eyes, but the blonde hair, you have a point, you'll just look like a little prep dressed for boarding school. We need a wig." "A wig?! Obama shaves his hair so short. I'll just shave my head.""NO." I replied. "our love had to be infused with reason. Okay. I have an idea. We got dressed and went to a wig store I knew was frequented by African American women. Having made my son feel awkward enough I thought I might as well go all the way. I explained the situation,"what do you have in a short man's Afro. My son wants to be Barack Obama for Holloween? The women laughed in a friendly and loving way. "What a good idea child. Forget those silly masks, they don't do him justice." She went on a search. All we could dome up with was a sixties Afro. When we put it on my son mutually we thought, "Obama at Harvard law school.Yes." Now if it hadn't been a sixth grade dance we might have gone with that. A nice brown leather jacket, the Jermaine Jackson look with some books. We've all seen the picture of the law school years. No, sixth graders won't get it. I asked her, what do you think if I cut it? He has a long fro, now we cut it to Obama's length. Awesome idea. Wait....Awkward pause, then she asked.."What are you going to do about his skin?.....Pause.
Now picture this .."My son attends about the most racially integrated public school in America. Who knows, maybe it is. There are children from thirty natoins speaking a multitude of languages. This has to do with both the influence of Yale University graduate housing, New Haven's immigrant population, and the typical urban population mixed into one pot. I speculated what would students who have heard their parents battling the stain and oppression of racism think when a child comes inn with an Afro and his face darkened? Not a good idea. So I thought, "How many times have I see beautiful African American children dressed as Cinderella, or Belle or Ariel? Hundred...that's how many. What do they do? Wear the costume, approximate the hair vila. You don't change the skin tone for a lot of reasons....think about it. So we cut the wig which was a laborious process. When my adorable son put in his new dark hair closely cropped, there was no doubt who he was impersonating....no emulating Perfect. Sure a few kids tried to make fun of him, but really what's there to make fun of with Barack. By the way, my son's ears stick out. It was the first time he was happy at about that.
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