[zxczxcasdasd]

You know, one of my lifelong best friends has always said that and he is Vietnamese (Babylift orphan) and grew up in a family with 11 adopted special needs children, 4 of whom were AA. He always said he wanted to have AA kids because they were the cutest! And he said it with love because he thought his younger siblings were the cutest things ever.

Of course now that he married a Portuguese woman and all 3 of their kids strongly resemble him, he thinks Vietnamese babies are the cutest!

I have to say, I'm white and I was an UGLY baby- fat, huge ears, bald. My mom said people used to come up and peek in at me and then jump back a bit! They'd usually end up saying something about me having big eyes- but never that I was cute.

[MB80sgirl]

Personally I think black babies, especially little girls, are the cutest babies, & they're a lot cuter than white babies.

[nee18]

Well, I'm actually glad to hear most people disagree with how I reacted to this situation. Sometimes, it's nice to just be reminded that not everything has to be disected and taken in a negative light. But, it really did feel "icky" as someone said on here. I have a friend that's pregnant and, most likely, will have an extremely fair-skinned child and she's made comments like "I wish our baby could have as pretty skin as your son." But, for some reason, that didn't bother me. I think it bothered me in this other situation because she was just so focused on it and kept saying comments about him being Black. Why not just say he's so cute or something? Who knows. Thanks for everyone's responses, though. I laughed out loud at some of them (especially zxczxcasdasd's response )

[nickchris]

Some people just do not know what to say and overdo. I would just say thanks, and move on. If you also had CC kids, I would say thanks I think they are all cute, and move on.


LOL here at some of the comments, best laugh I have had all day. I did get that from a L and D nurse when she made sure to say not all newborns come out looking as cute as your nephew. lmbo I do try to say something nice about folks babies, lol
I have to say all of my babies came out very cute.. and I have pics to prove it. LOL

[SHD]

This is too funny! LOL! My DD was beautiful when she was born. She was born quickly so she only had a little point to her head then rounded out in a day or two. Great skin color, head FULL of hair.

The woman did go overboard but every mama thinks her little bundle is cute.


Originally Posted by MamaS
Have you ever seen newborn white babies? They are all red and squashed and bald!

[OakShannon]

Of course, I've only seen pictures of my son as a newborn. But he was beautiful. Clearly the cutest baby ever.

Nee18 - I get where you're coming from. When we first brought David home, my dad's (then) girlfriend kept telling us how lucky we were that we got "a cute brown baby and not one of those pasty white ones." She said this not once, not twice, but repeatedly! Kept saying white babies look sickly. (And apparently they do, MamaS! )

I finally told her that I hoped she never said that in front of her own rather pasty white daughter, and she said, "Oh no. Susanna was the second darkest child in her preschool." Okaaay . . .

It did bug me. But then, this was a woman who was so excited when her daughter brought an African American friend over to her house for dinner that she looked up recipes so she could make him greens and black-eyed peas. I knew that she NEVER looked at my son without being totally focused on his race.

[KarynB]

This thread has really got me thinking!

I started to think of why the comment may have made some people uncomfortbale, and I guess it goes back to the fact that this woman was lumping in all babies according to their race - and that kind of grouping tends to lead to bad things! "All" black people are like this, etc.

But...I also find some of this refreshing. Oak, even the woman you are mentioning - the fact that people are starting to see darker skin as desirable makes me so happy! I feel like we get the message so often (and not just amongst Black and CC cultures, but also Indian, etc) that the lighter the skin is, the prettier it is (think of all the Black Hollywood starlets - Halle Berry, etc). So even though some of these comments are slight misplaced at least it seems like a move in the right direction!

[Sleeplvr]

My son looked like a bug for the 1st month or so. His eyes were huge...now that he's grown into them they are gorgeous. He's a handsome little guy.

My DD was beautiful baby.

[GDSinPA]

Originally Posted by KarynB

This thread has really got me thinking!

I started to think of why the comment may have made some people uncomfortbale, and I guess it goes back to the fact that this woman was lumping in all babies according to their race - and that kind of grouping tends to lead to bad things! "All" black people are like this, etc.

But...I also find some of this refreshing. Oak, even the woman you are mentioning - the fact that people are starting to see darker skin as desirable makes me so happy! I feel like we get the message so often (and not just amongst Black and CC cultures, but also Indian, etc) that the lighter the skin is, the prettier it is (think of all the Black Hollywood starlets - Halle Berry, etc). So even though some of these comments are slight misplaced at least it seems like a move in the right direction!

Those were my exact thoughts when I read the OP. It's a little tricky because the comment was essentially a compliment. However, it's there is an element of lumping and othering involved in a statement like that.

Still - assuming her attitude was positive and there wasn't the followup "too bad it doesn't last" or something like that, then I might twitch my nose but not really get worked up.

[rredhead]

Originally Posted by MamaS

Have you ever seen newborn white babies? They are all red and squashed and bald!
On the other hand black babies -- AND Hispanic babies -- are not red, and usually have fabulous heads of dark hair!
From a purely objective view, the lady was right.

I have to agree. My MIL one day, out of the blue, said, "White babies are funny looking. I never noticed it 'til I saw Jack."

I'm trying to explain this, and doing a really bad job, so I'll just call it a night.

:hippie