“Is that your baby?” “Are you the nanny?” “Where did you adopt your child from?”

All of these are familiar yet painful questions asked when one is part of a family of many colors. Somehow a variation in skin tone amongst the members of a nuclear family is enough to make strangers very confused. Popular opinion seems to suggest that if folks don’t match, they can’t be a family. Sad but true. And event though people have been building families in a myriad ways since the founding of this nation, it still seems to shock people that a dark-skinned woman might give birth to a light-skinned child.

Over on the lovely website, Raising Mothers, writer Auguste Budhram penned an essay expressing her frustration over this constant questioning of the relationship between herself, a Canadian by way of Trinidad, and her light-skinned daughter. Budhram writes, ” Here’s what’s wrong: In the 21st century, as the global population continues to blend, complete strangers are comfortable asking me about my relationship to my child.” Read the complete essay on Raising Mother.com.
Is there ever going to be a time when families don’t have to match?