Photograph from Weirdotoys.com

One day, when my oldest son was still in Elementary school, he came home crying because one of his friends said that he was “weird”. He took that word as an insult, he didn’t want to be weird, he wanted to be just like the rest of his friends.
And this was way before we adopted three Ethiopian children, so imagine if he was was weird then, how weirder he has gotten now…
My biological son was born in America, so nothing different than the rest there. He has white skin, blue eyes, so from his looks alone he is perceived as the “typical” American kid, belonging to the white majority.
Where is the weird stuff then?
According to his friends, he “talked” funny. He had a bit of an accent since we speak Spanish at home and some of it has rubbed into his speech. Maybe it was that…
But how weird are we compared to others?
We live in a country where the first white colonizers exterminated the original brown inhabitants. And I underline the word brown since that’s the color of people born in this land, the whites are those who don’t belong here.
From then to now, America is still a country where large amount of immigrants have come to live. We have a recently re-elected president who’s biracial, the son of an African and that is clearly perceived as belonging to the black race, again, part of the weirdoes.
Latinos are the fastest growing minority in the country, if for minority we accept more than 50 million people. Again, more weirdoes.
I only need to look around and even in a predominantly white state as Oregon, the “weirdoes” are easy to notice. Two simple examples. The pre-K class where my daughter goes to is only about 20% “white bread” Americans. The rest of the kids belong to immigrant or mixed-race families. And this is a private preschool in an educated middle/upper class neighborhood far from the stereotype of poor ignorant immigrants. The swimming class my husband goes to… 100% immigrants, again, same neighborhood!
Who’s the weirdo now?
Some people are still holding onto old ideas, or I should say old prejudices, fears, and stereotypes. America is becoming more and more a multicultural, multiracial nation and that is one of its strengths, the wide spectrum of views makes it richer than other nations that are desperately clinging to the past, like is the case in Europe. You can’t go back to the colonial days, you can’t erase millions of people that are already living in the land and making daily contributions with their hard work.
Going back to my son, and flashing forward into present day, some still consider him a weirdo. Really?
What I’m most worried about is that real insults have starting to come his way, like “people who speak Spanish are stupid jerks”, “Mexicans like you (which he is not) are bad people” and much worse than that… like: “you have a family of n…rs”. 
We are weirdoes and according to some of his classmates we should be punished for that, first with insults… and then with what?? Where do these kids learn these racially charged insults? Do they hear their parents say them?
What can I expect later? What can I expect when my brown kids enter middle or high school?
Scary.
But whatever people say, my children, the weirdoes of now, are the new “normal”, the future leaders of this country…
Oh, wait! The future IS ALREADY here… So wake up, America!
And I’m proud to be an American Weirdo.

AliciA