I apologize. I'm Not Politically Correct.

My soon-to-be stepdaughter made me a soon-to-be stepgrandma last week. I may or may not have mentioned that my stepdaughter looks like a grown up, slutty Annie. The baby daddy looks like Wesley Snipes, but skinnier.

I'm mixed race myself, but according to my friends, "You can't tell unless you see your Mom". I know my skin is funny colored - more yellowish than peach - and my hair is delightfully curly. It frizzes up into some kind of mutated hairball in humidity. Oh, and I'm hairless, too, on my body. I'm one of these blessed people who doesn't have to shave her legs but quarterly. I figure that's because of my darker-skinned (espresso and cafe au lait) forebears.

Anyway, my stepdaughter's best friend also had a daughter three weeks ago, so they are like two peas in a pod. Both sitting around, nursing two newborns, and taking care of eachother and their babies like "It Takes A Village To Raise A Child". Best friend is also mixed, and has a skin color that resembles 2/3 coffee mixed with 1/3 milk.

Their babies are pink. Big, huge brown eyes that look like oil pools. Gorgeous. But they are pink.

And it's a little weird. Best friend made the comment, "Her baby is whiter than mine". Because it is a little weird. I mean, maybe everybody grows into their skin color. My daughter was fuschia for the first week or so, then jaundiced. But pink? Like, Macaulay Culkin pink?

If someone can help us out here, please do. There isn't anything worse than not knowing what to say in moments like "Look at how beautiful her skin is, it's _______________". I hate to say "White". That's awful. I yelled at Charky just a month ago about how I don't check that little "White" box because it isn't right. We're not. We're proudly of mixed racial heritage, thanks, much unlike my own parents and grandparents are and were. Proud, I mean.

I did say, "Look at how beautiful her skin is, it's pink". And I automatically got a whole lot of swivvelled heads turned and looking at me. Was that wrong? Baby skin is beautiful, and my grandbaby's skin is creamy, with little pink tones under the nose, and eyes, and mouth. I felt like I was given a funny look for calling her pink, and I'm not sure if it's because calling someone pink is innappropriate? Kind of like calling someone "black" or "white" is just as unfair?

Is it wrong to wonder if her skin will change color as she grows older? Her daddy looks almost persian, with really strong, lean facial features. Will she look Indian or Pakistani? Back in the day my peoples came from India, so I know what that looks like in pink people. Will she look like that?

I suppose it's a bit like contemplating all newborns. We try to say "She has her dad's ears" or "Those are her mom's feet". But really, we don't know what the fuc& we're talking about. We all try to catch a glimpse of that baby face, and determine what the baby will look like at 1, at 2, at 12....

But is it wrong to call her pink? I certainly thought it was wrong to describe her as "whiter" than another baby. Pink?



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