#56: Keep Out, Claudia!
“I like to look good, and I’m good at looking good.” - Claudia, page 5
Own it, Claudia. Claud, creative as she is, notices that some of the charges are itching to do some kind of musical performance, so she has the idea to put together a band of kids - some who play instruments and others who can make some. A new project for the BSC? Kristy’s on cloud nine.
Meanwhile, the BSC has a new client - the Lowell family. Mary Anne is the first to babysit for Caitlin, Mackenzie (“Mackie”), and Celeste. (I think each of them came free with one of their parents’ yachts.) Mary Anne likes the kids, who are pale and blond and ask a lot of questions. At one point the two older kids are laughing at Asian characters on TV (“look at their eyes!”) but Mary Anne doesn’t really pick up on it. I already hate Caitlin and Mackie, although I’m guessing they learned their racism from somewhere or someone…
Claudia is the next to sit for the Lowells, and while everyone was warm, kind, and obedient with Mary Anne, they are rude, snide and disobedient with Claudia…. and aside from the obedience part, that includes Mrs. Lowell. The sitting job doesn’t go very well, and Claud can’t figure out why or what happened. (I have a guess and it rhymes with shmite shupremacy.) Next thing you know, Mrs. Lowell is calling the BSC asking for a baby-sitter… anyone except Claudia. Ugh, this bitch. Would anyone be surprised if her first name was Karen? The BSC can’t figure out why she’d ask that, but Jessi gets the job and will see what she can learn.
When Jessi shows up after spending a lot of time prepping and fixing up her Kid Kit, Mrs. Lowell looks shocked, stammers that she doesn’t need a baby-sitter after all, and shuts the door in Jessi’s face. You know what I have to say about this?
Meanwhile, the band that the BSC is putting together is demonstrating that kids are generally better and kinder than adults. Jackie Rodowsky (a god among men) has the idea to name the band All the Children, because its members are a mixture of sexes, ages, races, etc. All the kids like the idea. In fact, they get so carried away with their ideas that they sometimes forget to rehearse. But they’re so pure! Even if it could come off as a little pat-themselves-on-the-back.
Kristy is the next one to sit for the Lowells. She gets the nice treatment, and based on that and some comments that the kids make (like calling Claudia “the funny-looking one”… how dare they) she figures out that the Lowells are racist as shit. She talks to her mom, Watson, and Nannie about it and they seem to agree with Kristy’s perception.
“With each generation I think it’s going to be over. But it isn’t even getting better. Maybe I’m just an old fool.” - Nannie, page 82
Kristy fills the club in at the next meeting. Claudia is understandably angry, and Jessi is sad (this has happened to her before). The rest of the club is sympathetic and they have a discussion about prejudice and how it isn’t rational, and also how just because we’re past slavery and the holocaust doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods.
Then who should call but Mrs. Lowell, requesting “the blue-eyed, blonde-haired baby-sitter she’s heard about.” That could be Stacey or Dawn, but both of them outright refuse to baby-sit for the Lowells. (Thank you, ladies!) Kristy calls Mrs. Lowell back and basically gives her a passive-aggressive “fuck you.” LONG LIVE THE BSC! Later, Claudia talks to her father and Janine and learns about the internment camps that Japanese people were put in during World War II - in America. Claudia is shocked.
And, as a side note in a genuine, non-snarky moment, I cried while reading this book. As I write this our country is in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Asian-Americans were harassed and threatened because of the association of the virus with Wuhan, China. George Floyd has just been murdered by police officers in Minnesota and there are #BlackLivesMatter protests and related protests around the country. It just hits home that these problems aren’t new, they aren’t “back” (they’ve always been here; it’s just that now we have iPhone cameras and Twitter), and that nothing will get better without systemic change. Please do what you can to educate yourself and those in your life (and, if you’re white like me, remember that it’s not our black neighbors’ jobs to educate us) and do what you can to help and to be an ally.
All the Children works hard to rehearse, decide on matching outfits, and get everything ready for their first big performance. Jackie Rodowsky is the emcee (I approve) and, other than a few minor hiccups, everything goes great. The BSC has done it again (duh). Mrs. Lowell may be the worst, but she doesn’t represent Stoneybrook. Also she can screw off and never come back. I wish someone could have taught her a lesson in this book, but I do understand that the BSC members are eleven- and thirteen-year-old girls and may not be ready to go toe-to-toe with an adult stranger, or even understand how insidious her racism is or how it’s probably not just Mrs. Lowell who has these ideas. Sigh.
