Baby Lin

Normally, I don't see the blog as a soapbox. After reading some news this morning, I decided to make an exception.

At the stroke of midnight, January 1, a little baby named Yuki Lin was born in NYC. She was the New Years Baby. Toys R Us has a contest to award a $25,000 savings bond to the first baby born in the New Year. Unfortunately, the company decided to take back the award because of her parents' immigration status.

After an afternoon talking with my students about Martin Luther King and three years of interacting with many children who probably share an immigration history with this baby, I was upset. It seems like we should be past this type of discriminatory thinking. Each day, my students are able to navigate their ways through multiculturalism with very few bumps. It seems like the adults cannot figure out what my 8, 9, and 10 year olds have down.

So, I wrote an email to the Director of Corporate Philanthropy and the Director of PR at Toys R Us. I used words liked marred and unethical. Now, I'm going to have to figure out what I can do next.