Surely you must have adopted....

I share a picture of my grandchild with a white woman who has shared her grands' pics with me, and she immediately tells me about her friend who also adopted two Black children who were from Haiti. I confirm the "white" is understood in her description of her "friend".

I interrupt the conversation to inform her neither my daughter nor my grandchild were adopted - as if...

I tell her how, when my daughter was young and we were walking down the street together, white people would marvel at her hair and "tan", reaching out in a quickly thwarted (by me first, then my daughter) attempt to fondle her hair while asking "where did she get this hair from?" And "ohhhhhh, what a nice 'tan'!"

But if we were walking down this same street with a Black womon, white people would not question but just smile with questioning concerned eyes, as they assumed my daughter was her daughter. They would not be so forward as to ask her how her daughter got that hair but they would look so confused and even worried as they'd make other comments about how beautiful her daughter is and those eyes....grrrrrr

White people could see the Black in my daughter only when she was with another Black person; and then they could not see my daughter's biological relationship to me if we were with a Black womon.

And this white woman, seeing the color in my progeny, went for the adoption "explanation".... sigh