What Color are You?

My daughter was sitting next to me and suddenly came to the realization that our skin colors are slightly different.

"Mommy- What color are you?"
"Pardon?"
"What color are you?"
"What color do you think I am?"
"I don't know"
"OK - Well- what color are YOU?"
"I'm brown"
"How do you know that?"
"Because I can see it. And my brother is brown. And daddy is brown. But what color are you?"
"I'm not brown?"

OK- This was funny, because I am normally the first to remove myself from Indian/Pakistani (Indo/Pak) people. My history has made me a bit jarred. But this was too weird. I mean, after all, I certainly didn't want her to lump herself and her brother with my ex and make me the outsider. But then again- what makes her think I'm different? True, my skin is slightly lighter than theirs, but it's not like I'm noticeably different...At least I don't think so.

"What colors are there?" I asked
"Brown, black, white, and something else."
"Oh. Well....What am I?"
"I think you're something else".

Nice...Now I'm the leftover stuff :) This was amusing.

"Ok- so what's the question?"
"Why are you different from us?"

OK- I wasn't about to give my almost-5-year-old a long winded explanation about how my mom's family originated from Northern Pakistan, resulting in fairer skin, lighter hair, lighter eyes, and that her dad's family comes from Southern Pakistan....You get the point.

"I just am, honey. God made me like that."
"Why are we different?"

Hmmm- Then I had an idea. Heck if I'm going to be the outsider :)

"Well- you're not different sweetie. Not exactly. See your dad is slightly darker than you. And I'm just a little lighter. What happens when you mix dark and light?"
"You get medium."
"That's you."

Her eyes lit up. Almost like she had some revelation. The funny thing is, I didn't even answer her original question around what color I am. I just maybe made her realize that we are all different, and that she is a mixture of me and her dad.

Ha. I'm such a troublemaker. Way to confuse the child. :)