Last week I experienced for the first time a child admitting to me that she was uncomfortable spending time with me because of my skin color. Her exact words were, "I don't want to play with you and be your friend because you have brown skin, I don't like brown skin, I'm scared of brown skin". It cut me but not because of her words, mostly because I felt sorry for her as a young child not having an opportunity to embrace different cultures and learning hate at such an early age. What a sad world she must live in I thought. I could never take on an opportunity where I would feel like I am forcing a child to like me and get to know me. I love children and always want them to be comfortable with me. As I reflect on the experience I draw on my spirituality to pray for that family instead of develop anger, since anger never solves problems anyway. I couldn't help but think, was I surprised that this occurred? Not really.
Also this week check out Anderson Cooper's program on on a study given about black and white children and their biases toward lighter skin color.
CNN
No comments:
Post a Comment