This afternoon, I found myself at a teacher supply store to search for math books for some of my home schooled girls. I had three teenaged kids with me, including Helen who arrived to America from Ethiopia two years ago.

After we’d found the needed math books, we looked around the rest of the store. Caroline found some great art books. Ryan wandered off and amused himself playing Blokus while he waited. Helen and I, after reminding each other that “we don’t believe in science”, skipped the science section and looked through the “social studies” section instead. Naturally, the books about Africa or books about “Traveling Through World Cultures” drew her in.

What I noticed, browsing alongside her, was that not one of the many books even mentioned Ethiopia. There were books from at least twenty-five manufacturers available. I wrongly assumed that at least one would give a nod to Ethiopia.

Instead, we decided maybe we could group Ethiopia with any other African country and call it “good enough”. In all of these books, two books mentioned Kenya. Other books specifically about Africa, and geared to semi-older grades (i.e. th-8th grade), did not differentiate between different countries of South Africa. Rather they addressed aspects of Africa as a whole. So, maybe they would be interesting to flip through?

Not so much. We laughed a lot at the clothing that the books suggested to be traditional African clothing. If the books had left it to “clothing from the past” or maybe “ceremonial clothing”, perhaps that would have been more believable. Instead, they offered up ridiculous drawings of the “typical African girl”. Helen looked at the drawings and had to blink several times before letting me know that she never even saw an outfit like that. She asked, tongue in cheek, “are they telling me what I did wear? Maybe I do not remember and maybe we all wore clothing like that??” I assured her that this must be true. The book says that it is so; therefore, it is true. Now, no more questions, miss Helen. This book will tell you what you need to know about Africa.

I then told her what she used to eat. I read it straight from the book about food in Africa. She has never eaten a meal like that in her life, according to her telling. Nope. I told her again: The book says that it is so. It does not say that “these are typical foods in some areas of Africa”; it says that this is what you eat there. So, Helen, you are wrong. OK?

Oh boy. What to tell this child? What to tell my children from other cultural and ethnic backgrounds? If only this weren't so common.

See the next blog for the end of the story and more thoughts.