Where Are You?

It’s overcast today as I pull out of the driveway for my first Walmart Grocery pickup. It’s not a day I want to go grocery shopping. I hate loading my car while it pours outside. I guess today is as good of a day as any to try this new service. I placed the order a couple of nights ago while out of town, watching the Olympics, with a sleeping toddler just down the hall. Ah! Parents with toddlers know the dread of entering Walmart with their kids. Well, maybe it’s just me. My sweet little munchkin changes into an intolerable box of screams almost immediately after I think this trip could be different.

My order was over $100 - aren’t most people’s shopping for a family of four? I was thrilled to be able to get everything for my people and even when I forgot to add something I still had a few days to edit my order.

My pickup time was set for nine. I received a call about 8:30 saying my order was ready and asking me to call when I arrived.

So, here I am on the way to the Walmart across town - my local store doesn’t have the pickup option (yet, I hope). I pull into the Walmart, remembering the map in my confirmation email. However, the road is clearly marked with arrows pointing me to the pickup spot. I pull into one of the six specially marked pickup spots - next to another woman in her car. I called the number and let them know I had arrived. He asked for my name and told me he would be out shortly.

A few weeks ago I walked into Target late one night. Jonathan stayed home while Samantha slept and mom and I drove 15 minutes into town for the purpose of buying Samantha a vinyl baby doll. She received one with a cloth body for Christmas and it has become an issue because now that she loves it she wants to take it in the bath tub with her.

Anyway, we spent forty minutes in Target looking at dolls. Trying to find one that would work for a one year old and could go in the bath tub. The diversity was limited, but I couldn't seem to find the perfect doll either - until I caught sight of a waterbaby on a lower shelf. Perfect! I also had this baby doll as a child, so how awesome that they have brought it back. She was soft, no small parts, and light enough for a toddler. Yay! She was $20, which is a bit ridiculous, in my opinion, but if this is the doll she makes me drive back to the restaurant (because she loves her so) it's worth it, right?

One problem - the doll's skin color didn't match my child's. Now, while Samantha will have dolls of all shapes, sizes, colors, etc. I wanted the doll she slept with and the one she always carried around with her to be one that was black. So, I scoured the shelves, stooping low to see the very backs of each shelf. I took the doll to that red machine that told me there were none in the back. Boo! I pulled out my phone and looked online and yes, they had a black doll at Target.com. Underneath it said "only sold online" and underneath the white doll it said "only sold in stores." 😠

No parent was winning here. Especially me, who was in Target at 10pm looking for a doll that my baby could use during her next bath. I tweeted about it and joined in on a #diversedolls campaign with Tamara King and Erin Parker and other parents around the country asking Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us to step up their game.

I’m not sure who made the recommendation that I read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, but it felt like as soon as one person mentioned what a good read it was - everyone was talking about it. Maybe it was around the time that Judge Aaron Persky sentenced rapist Brock Turner to six months in jail. A sentence that a black man would have never received. The book just kept coming up.

So, I added Just Mercy to my Goodreads “want to read” list and thought little else of it. However, the more that was revealed about the case against rapist Brock Turner and the more I thought to myself. I should read this book. Now, I’m a mom of a young toddler, so there isn’t much reading going on in my world - at least not the kind that requires much thought and contemplation. However, I can listen to audiobooks during the long drives to and from work. Add to the fact that Bryan Stevenson reads his own audiobook (I believe every author should read their own audiobooks) and I was sold. 

Now, this has become the #summerofsocialjustice. I’m planning to read books on economic inequality, feminism and race. Here’s the booklist - influenced by librarians who are friends, fellow social workers, the Lemonade syllabus and my person infatuation with Jen Hatmaker and her clan:

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

We Should All Be Feminist by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Barefoot Church by Brandon Hatmaker

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore 

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham

Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

Bridges Out of Poverty by Ruby K. Payne