Usually commercials for cereal are pretty run-of-the-mill, but there’s one that recently generated a lot of conversation, and even some controversy. The ad for Cheerios features an adorable little girl, her mom and her dad. Take a look:
That’s right: the noise around this seemingly innocuous commercial centers on the fact that the little girl is biracial, with a white mom and a black dad.
I know racism still exists, but I am still surprised that there were so many hateful remarks connected to the ad on YouTube that Cheerios was forced to turn off the comments section.
As someone who has the honor of working and speaking on behalf of families, this still shocks me. Multicultural and multiethnic families are hardly outside the mainstream. The Washington Post reported the 2012 Census, saying “the number of mixed-race babies has soared over the past decade… More than 7 percent of the 3.5 million children born in the year before the 2010 Census were of two or more races, up from barely 5 percent a decade earlier. The number of children born to black and white couples and to Asian and white couples almost doubled.”
Think about those numbers for a minute. We’re talking about at least 245,000 babies in one year alone having a mixed-race background.
Multicultural and multiethnic families are also created through adoption. Here at Focus, we work hard to increase awareness of adoption from the foster care system through our Wait No More program. We have staff members who have adopted children from places as far away as China. Many of these families are multicultural and multiethnic. They reflect the beauty of the Church, which includes people “from every nation, tribe, people and language.”
Doing marriage and parenting right is challenging enough for any family, and certainly these “melting pot families” can face additional, unique tests. I’ll be praying that the world sees their beauty and gives them the love and support they deserve.
To learn more about “Marriage in the Melting Pot,” visit our online article series on the topic.
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Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is The Good Dad: Becoming the Father You Were Meant to Be.
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