Every year for Christmas my mom gets me a hallmark ornament from the series “fairy messengers”. I love fairies. My mom knows this well. When I was in elementary school I knew exactly where the section for books about fairies was in the library and and read most of the books on the shelf more than once.
After grad school and moving and a December baby, this year was the first in several years that we’d had a Christmas tree. As I hung my little fairy ornaments on the tree, I savored and appreciated each one, smiling over their colorful details and the sparkles on their tiny fairy wings.
I hit a snag as I unwrap the 2015 fairy. She is the lotus fairy, her full skirt made up of the pink pointed petals of a lotus. Her straight black hair and black eyes indicate that she is “Asian”. I pause. Were there any other fairies that weren’t white? A quick shuffle through my boxes shows the 2012 tiger lily fairy might be something other than white. I finish my decorating but throughout the Christmas season the question bubbled up, quietly, but persistently: why are all of my ornaments white?
Weeks later, I sit down to do a little research. I find, on Hallmark’s website, that no less than thirty of these little fairies have been created since 2005. In addition to the two fairies of color I mentioned, there is one black fairy from early in the collection that I don’t have. That makes three out of thirty.
I’m white. My husband is white. Our child is white. Why shouldn’t all my ornaments be white?
I’m not sure I know the answer exactly, but I think it might be the same answer to the question “why shouldn’t all my friends/neighbors/coworkers/celebrity crushes/political leaders be white?”