Read No Weapon Formed (Boaz Brown) for Free Online

I couldn’t make out their words.
    “Seth, honey, what are Daddy
and Grandpa talking about?”
    “Oh, I told Daddy that
Grandpa said I’m gonna be a negro when I go to pre-kindergarten,” he informed
in a most innocent tone.
    “A what ?”
    “A negro. Black. And I gotta
be real smart, Grandpa said. And he showed me a big, big chapter book with a
lot of words. It had pictures with black people in them, and they were really , really black from a long time ago. But I told him I’m not gonna be
black,” Seth continued. “And I’m already really smart.”
    Though there were still a
thousand questions to be answered—like how he and my father had gotten
into this conversation in the first place—I wanted to chase the color-rabbit
in Seth’s head. “What’s wrong with being black?”
    “I’m not black,” he said.
    “Well…you kind of are,” I
said. “I mean…I’m black. And I’m your Mommy…”
    “You’re not black, you’re
brown,” Seth corrected me. “We’re all Brown because of our last name, so we’re
not black.”
    “I see. Go ahead and get your
seatbelt on.”
    This was not the kind of
conversation I wanted to have with Seth without Stelson. And it certainly
wasn’t the conversation my father should have had with Seth, ever .
    If it wasn’t so hot outside,
I would have pulled the brake, lowered the windows, taken the keys and gone
inside for a minute to diffuse things. Leaving the kids alone in the car
without air, however, wasn’t an option. Dragging them inside wasn’t an option,
either.
    I tapped the horn.
    Stelson emerged from the
house, stomping toward the car as my father yelled from the porch, “I only told
the boy the truth!”
    “Ooh,” Seth gasped as his
father descended the driveway. “We should change Daddy’s last name to Red.”

Chapter 5
     
    With Seth in the car, Stelson
and I had to wait until we got home to discuss my father’s unauthorized history
lesson. Stelson put Seth in the tub. I took care of Zoe’s last bottle and her
kitchen-sink bath. My husband held it together long enough for me to read them
a story. Then, he uttered a quick family prayer before we put the kids in bed.
    And then I followed him to
our bedroom to get the full story. “What happened?”
    He helped me prop up my foot
on two pillows before he answered. “Seth can’t go over there anymore. Not until
we come to an understanding.”
    “He has to go over there.
Daddy picks him up on Tuesdays and takes him to piano lessons at Mrs.
Gambrell’s, remember?”
    He probably didn’t. I could
barely keep up with the taxi schedule and I was the driver. “Besides, Daddy
really could use the company.”
    “He may have to go to a
senior center or something. Hang with people who want to hear his philosophy.”
    I ignored the
not-gonna-happen suggestion. “What, exactly, was said?”
    Stelson chewed on his bottom
lip for a second. “Basically, he told Seth that because he’s black, he’ll have
to work harder and be smarter than the white kids in his class in order to be
successful.”
    Honestly, I thought Stelson
would be more upset about the whole ‘negro’ thing. “Well…,” I proceeded with
caution, “I mean, my dad was out of place for having the black talk with
him before we did. But it’s not like he told Seth a lie.”
    “It is a lie,” Stelson
stressed. “And there’s no such thing as having the black talk .”
    “Yes. There. Is.” I raised
off the headboard. “Granted, you probably never heard it. But Seth is biracial,
which makes him a minority. Historically and racially speaking, he is at
a disadvantage. He will have to be at the top of his game in order to
compete with his counterparts, assuming his skin will darken over time. I don’t
think he should hear this talk at four years old, but it is necessary.”
    Stelson hissed, “I can’t
believe you’re saying this. On what grounds do you agree with your dad?”
    His words stung me as his
wife and as my father’s