Peach, Tan, and Brown

It was black history month

My daughter was in 1st grade

They studied great black leaders

A new one every day

I asked her all about it

When she came home after school

She said it was all very interesting

She found it very cool

But the thing she said she wondered

About the people in this town

She asked why they were studying blacks

When there weren't any of them around

I said "Your teacher's black

So is half your class"

I could see from the look on my child's face

That she thought I was daft

I said "Your teacher's black and we are white,

Both races live in our town"

She looked at me and said "We're peach

And her teacher is a nice brown."

The students in her class

Are peach and tan and brown

There are no blacks there are no whites

Not in our home town

I knew that she was right

The rest of us are wrong

There are no blacks, there are no whites

Only shades of peach & brown

I tried to explain, my words failed

My daughter knew what was right

Brown is brown, brown is not black,

And no way can peach be called white.

I asked her teacher to explain it to her

How the colors that she sees

When on a face brown is black

Only then she believed me

It felt very wrong, telling my child

That the crayons are not labeled right

If I color a face brown, it is black

And a peach colored face is white

My little first grade child

She knew what was right

Brown is brown, not black

And peach is peach, not white

My little child, she was right

The rest of us are wrong

There are no blacks, there are no whites

Only shades of peach and brown.

© Barbara F Gregory 1997*

*Sing this to your heart's content. Xerox, including the copyright, and hand it out to friends. Perform it with your group. If you want to record it, that's OK, too. LOL!! Just send me an email and give me credit for the words.