In Touch With a Book and the Elders

Written by
Betty Miller Buttram
FWIS Contributing Writer

There was a Book Signing at Historic Turner Chapel A.M.E. Church on the afternoon of Saturday, October 29, 2022, and it was different from the way that such an event is usually accomplished.

The sound of children’s laughter filled the area in the Richard Allen Cultural Center.  It was an afternoon for preschoolers, elementary/middle schoolers, their parents, friends, and the Elders to listen and learn.

This festive afternoon was about the book, “Kids are Not Krayons,” by George Middleton who was supported by the People of Afrikan Descent Elders Council (PoADEC).  The mission of PoADEC is to provide education, support, advocacy, and access for people of Afrikan descent while modeling unity in the community through collective organization and power sharing.  Middleton had a book, and Anita Dortch, a member of the PoADEC, went into mission mode to share Middleton’s book with the Fort Wayne community.

Middleton is a Mental Health Counselor who holds a B.A. from the School of Music at Indiana University, a M.S.M. in Management from Indiana Wesleyan University, and a M.S. in Human Services from Capella University. The Illustrator for the book is Blake Frederick who specializes in traditional and digital art and has four illustrated books including one of his own.

Middleton’s book is about how children develop as they begin to form relationships with family and friends that helps them with social connections. He states, “Research shows that children derive a sense of pride, self-worth, and consistency from their social identities.  Children who feel worthy and capable are more likely to be optimistic and to do well in school.  A healthy sense of identify helps children to be more open to people from other backgrounds because they are less likely to fear difference or put other children down to feel better about themselves.”

I read the book “Kids are Not Krayons,” and Middleton is addressing racial and social identity to the young readers.   In his book, there is a repetitive and teachable phrase in referencing the different crayons, i.e.: “Grass isn’t grass because of it’s color on the outside.  It’s grass because of what’s on the inside, and though all the different colors of grass grow as it would, all the grass is just as Good!”

Several of the young children present had read Middleton’s book during the Ubuntu Learning Lab Lesson the previous Thursday, October 27th and were familiar with its contents.  Then Middleton gave the children a teachable moment when he played a video of “The Doll Test,” that Doctors Kenneth and Mamie Clark, both psychologists, had designed and had conducted a series of experiments in the 1940s to study the psychological effects of segregation on African American children.  The Doctors used four dolls, identical except for color, to test the children’s racial perceptions.  The children, between the ages of three to seven, were asked to identify both the race of the dolls and which color doll they prefer.  A majority of the children preferred the white doll and assigned positive characteristics to it.  The Clarks concluded that prejudice, discrimination, and segregation created a feeling of inferiority among African American children and damaged their self-esteem.  Dr. Kenneth Clark provided testimony during the Brown v. Board of Education historic trial which legally ended segregation in the nation’s public school system.  The majority of the Elders in the Richard Allen Cultural Center were aware of “The Doll Test,” but the children were curious and questionable about the selection of the “white doll.”

Middleton continued with his teaching by stating that Race is a bad marriage; that Diversity is not the same as Race and not to let anybody from outside of your family tell you who you are.

I looked up the meanings of Race and Diversity, words that I thought I was familiar with, and another word, Ethnicity and found these definitions:

--Race refers to the concept of dividing people into groups on the basis of various sets of physical characteristics and the process of ascribing social meaning to those groups.

--Diversity is the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientation, etc.

--Ethnicity describes the culture of people in geographic regions including their language, heritage, religion, and custom….and

--Racism is pervasively and deeply embedded in and throughout systems, laws as written or unwritten policies, entrenched practices, and established beliefs and attitudes that produce, condone, and perpetuate widespread unfair treatment of people of color.

What about the word “Ethnicity” as it might pertain to us as African Americans. Our African ancestors’ language, religion, culture, and customs were stripped from them as they made their way on ships to unknown parts of the world. Once it was stripped from them and for the years they were held in bondage, those social connections to their heritage were lost.  It doesn’t make us a confused racial group, but it makes us continue striving to connect with what was stripped from our ancestral grandparents.

Where do we begin? We begin with our children.  “Kids are Not Krayons” is a good start.  It is the beginning of a teaching tool about race, diversity, and ethnicity.  These three words have different meanings, but they are connected as to how America is populated.

As of 2020, White Americans are the racial and ethnic majority; Hispanic and Latino Americans are the largest ethnic majority; and the African Americans are the largest racial minority.  Think about that.  Where is our ethnicity?

Middleton continued with his engagement with the young audience and was interviewed by one of the “youth reporters,” Maysun King.

Books were signed and the audience was entertained by Middleton who is an accomplished musician on the electronic piano.  He was accompanied by Jalen Floyd, originally from Chicago, Ill., who played the drums.  Vocals were beautifully provided by Lisa McDavid originally from Youngstown, Ohio and Katy Doty who is the Worship Leader at Historic Turner Chapel A.M.E. Church.  Braylon Moxley, another member of the church, gave a solo performance on the electronic piano, and Jade Henry recited poems of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes and two of her own.  There was also food and lemonade served.

It was a festive event for a warm October Saturday afternoon; one filled with the adults and Elders all brightened up by a good book, high spirits, and the children’s laughter.