Brown People...

Guess which of the two of us are 'brown people'

(It's an old picture, but I rarely photograph well...so I'm using one of the rare photos I like of myself---it's my blog, I can)

I got a letter from the school because they are concerned by the discrepancy of the test scores between the "Black, Brown, Asian and White students" and would those of us who are Brown, Black or Asian want to learn how they are teaching math (Everyday Math for those of you familiar with the sadistic curriculum).

Brown? Ummmmm, hmmm, what?

When did brown become an identifier of people? And who exactly are the Brown people? Are we talking about the entire Continent of South America, the southern part of North America and some of the Caribbean Islands. Is it really about color? Because I've met some Germans darker then I am. As a matter of fact, my husband, of German, Russian, French and British descent, is darker then I am. Is it being of Spanish descent? Because last I heard, Spain was a European country off the Mediterranean...as is France, Italy and Greece...and yet they're not considered brown.

And another thing...what if you're more then one "color"? Why is someone half black and half white, considered black...I mean Obama is a black candidate, not a white one, yet he is equally white. I'm half of British descent...although my dad's side has been here since before the American Revolution and half Cuban (mom came here as a kid when Castro was just taking over) and yet...I'm considered (as are my children) Brown....even with a maiden name of TAYLOR.

Then we get to the math part of my rant.....Yeah, I'm so sorry, I'm teaching my kids to borrow from the 10's column rather then the weird way the school is teaching them...but it's not because I'm brown that I can't figure out what they're doing. My engineer 100% "white" hubby can't figure out the math homework half the time.....so really it's not about color, it's because it's STUPID. When I complained to Jake's teacher at the parent-teacher conferences she said it was fine that I helped with the homework my way......and good thing he's doing well, I would hate for him to be the one to ruin the testing stats of our school.

You know I should just take a page out of Martha's book....Martha Chang..and if you saw her blog, you would be floored that she was a Good Looking Blond Norwegian chick from the Midwest....so not what you'd expect from a last name of Chang....She plans on going in every year and changing her children's status, Caucasian one year and Asian the next. Come to think of it, there's no actual 'brown' box.....

I would really like it if they stopped with the whole what color everyone is, because, frankly we're all Americans.