Perhaps you’ve seen her perform. She stars in a cereal commercial in which her “mother” tells her the cereal is “heart healthy.” So Grace runs into the living room where her “father” is napping and pours some of it on his chest.
The commercial has been airing since May and the overwhelming majority of viewers “liked” it on Facebook. Others, though, found reason to be outraged — because the “mother” is white and the “father” is black.
Those people made their feelings about interracial marriage felt on social media, many of them citing their interpretations of Bible scriptures and using phrases I have no intention of dignifying here.
At the age of six, Grace is too young to understand what has been called “a tempest in a cereal bowl.” According to her real-life biracial parents, “she thinks all the attention is because she has a great smile.”
Although the cereal company eventually found it necessary to disable the comments section on YouTube concerning the commercial, it has stood by it, declaring “… we know there are all kinds of families and we celebrate them all.”
There are, in fact, an estimated 2.5 million biracial families in this country, including mine. As Grace’s father put it, “We’re also part of the face of America.”
And last week a new video appeared online. In this one, a dozen children aged 7-13 sat in front of a camera and gave their opinions for a feature called “Kids react … “
What did they think of the commercial, an interviewer asked.
“Cute … funny,” they agreed.
What did they think of the family?
“Looked like a normal family,” was the consensus.
Did you notice anything different about the family?
None of them did.
Did you know that some people were offended by the commercial?
“Why?” they wondered, clearly puzzled.
Because the parents were biracial, the interviewer explained.
The kids’ reactions were expressed in typical kids-speak.
“That’s messed up.”
“That’s so stupid.”
“That’s just sad.”
“I thought Martin Luther King fixed that already,” one boy said.
MLK didn’t, of course; the ongoing controversy in the wake of the Trayvon Martin case emphasizes that. And a video of a dozen kids speaking from their hearts isn’t going to fix it, either.
But watching it gives me reason to hope that some day my granddaughters might follow in the tiny footsteps of Grace Colbert.
And that ALL the attention will be focused on their killer smiles.
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