Martin Luther King had a dream but I dont remember him because I was a small child...
I learned later on life his words but I experienced my on lesson in love below...
When I went to elementary school there were no other races really just white kids at our school....
I didn't know much about different colors of skin and races just what I heard from my parents...I wont go into what they said but it wasn't nice...<my parents are not like that anymore I just think its what they learned from there parents and so forth.>
Ignorance gets passed on and nobody really questions it...
So as a child I took my parents at thier word because I thought they knew everything.... as all small children do....
One day we had to make a field trip . All the schools from around town went to a program at this big high school or college....
This is a day I will always remember.....
I was standing in line not really sure where we were going just waiting for our line to move...
I had my lunch money in my hand probably playing with it instead of keeping it in my pocket like I was supposed to :-)...
I dropped my quarter and it rolled all the way over to the other side of the big room.... Now on the other side of the big room was another line of children.....Children from the other side of town....I did not know these kids but I did know by looking at them that they were black children which I had never been around ever....
The little black boy picked up my quarter and held out his hand as to say here is your quarter come and get it...... I didn't know what to do here was my dilemma.....
If I didn't go get my quarter it was no lunch for me and I would be in trouble for losing my lunch money...
But I knew if I went over to the little black boy I would be in trouble because you didn't go around those kind of people....Now I didn't know what that really meant <those kind of people>I just overheard my parents talk and it was a given..mind your parents...
Well he look nice and smiled at me.
I thought I will run over there fast and get my quarter back no one will see and everything will be fine.... SO I did.....
I reached out to take my quarter and my hand touch the inside of this little boys hand.... I remember it was the softest skin I had ever felt in my life....
At that moment I realized that these people I had heard about were just like me...they were human it was kind of a revelation for such a young kid but I was a very deep child.....
I thanked the little boy and smiled back at him.... That was the day I realized that what adults said wasn't always right...
I realized that the color of the skin didn't matter that we were all the same ...just people Of course I went home and told my mom and she made me wash my hand...<yeah stupid I know>
But deep inside me I smiled because I knew that the little boy and I shared a secret..... From that day on I was more skeptical of what my parents told me about other races... I knew that his skin felt just like my skin so that made us the same and that was good enough for me.... Donna
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3 comments:
What a wonderful entry! I remember something similar to that. I had taken my younger brother up to a local store. He was about 4 at the time. We came upon a little black boy about the same age. My brother and he stood their just looking at each other and smiling. Then at the same time they reached out and touched each other's hair. They both had very curly hair but the texture was very different. They just stood their smiling and patting each other's head. The moment was interrputed by the little boy's Mom who came in and scooped him up, never to be seen again.
My brother had a very good experience and I was glad for him and the other little boy.
That was beautiful, Donna. My Mom was raised by "ignorant" parents as well, and it has taken years to erase the damage they did to her, to this day, my Mom forbids the use of the N word in her presence.
I had a somewhat similar experience myself. My father's side of the family were very predjudice. Luckily my dad broke that cycle, but I still heard all that trash talk when I was very young being around my grandfather.
Steph
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