Grandma's Little James Brown

Children are like sponges, soaking up all information they can get. They learn from watching their parents, grandparents, from daycare and school and even from listening to music.

Earlier this week, I picked up my four-year-old grandson from daycare and proceeded to go to the bank. As we were riding along, I had James Brown's song, Say It Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud, blasting on my CD player. I'm cruising along--- singing---and, all of a sudden, Jarod decides to chime in.

Mind you, Jarod has never seen James Brown before or heard any of his music before this day so you can imagine my total surprise when we walked into the bank and he starts dancing and singing VERY LOUDLY, "Say it loud I'm black and I'm proud..." . Fortunately, there weren't many people in the bank and no one could see my face turning red. I immediately explained that we had been listening to the song in the car and weren't coming into the bank to start a revolution.

I then softly told Jarod that he needed to have his quiet voice on when we were in the bank. Do you know what he did? He whispered as loud as he could, "Say it loud I'm black and I'm proud!"

I haven't had a conversation with him yet to see if he really understands what that song means or was he just singing it because grandma was. Althought I saw this as one of our funniest moments together, I also hope he will hold those words in his heart with a sense of pride in who he is.

Certainly, being a black male in this society will be a conversation that must be addressed.