Oscar Joy

February 10, 2020
Susan Breen

There were a lot of nice moments at the Oscars last night, but one of my favorites was when producer Karen Toliver talked about her animated movie, Hair Love, and how important it is for children to see themselves represented, especially in cartoons, which is for many, the first time they get a sense of what kids should look like.

That brought back to me a memory of when my son Will was young. We adopted him from South Korea in 1988. and my husband and I read to him, and all our kids, all the time. But, being white people, it didn’t occur to us that the only books we were reading were about white people. Then one day we stumbled across a book that had Asian characters in it and I’ll never forget how transfixed Will was by that book.

Of course now it seems so obvious. But it wasn’t then. To me, anyway. It was a powerful lesson though.

Later in the Oscars I was further overjoyed to see all the South Korean actors holding up awards for the Parasite win. It was a very joyful Oscars for me!