A little five year old girl sits quietly at her desk in a Kindergarten classroom at a Catholic School. Surrounding her, at their desks are her friends, her classmates. At a glance they may all look alike, as they were the same uniform being, a plaid pleated skirt for the girls navy blue trousers for the boys and white button up shirts for all. However, this classroom is somewhat diverse; though most of the students are white, or Caucasian if you prefer. There are also some African American students, Asian and a couple of Mexican students. Emily knows her skin color is slightly light than that of some of her friends but she doesn't know why and it makes no difference to her. She is excited to be coloring a picture just as Mrs. Nower, her teacher had instructed the class to do.
Emily smiles with satisfaction as she admires her art work. Mrs. Nower approaches Emily's desk to inspect her work.
"Who is the person holding the flowers that you've drawn in your picture?" Mrs. Nower asked curiously.
"You are so silly. It's ME!!" Emily shouted enthusiastically.
"There are no such things as black flowers, Emily. Why did you use black and red crayons for your hands and feet when you colored your face pink?" She criticised as her old face wrinkled even more with confusion and disappointment.
"It's pretty, huh?" Emily replied innocently, unsure of neither what Mrs. Nower's question meant nor how to answer it.
After school Emily beamed with pride as she handed the picture she'd drawn to her mother.
"This is a lovely picture of you picking flowers in the garden." Her mother exclaimed.
"Mrs. Nower didn't even know it was me. She said my hands and feet were the wrong colors and that flowers aren't supposed to be black." Emily said with a frown.
"Did she ask why you colored your hair yellow when it is actually brown?" Her mother asked.
"MOM!" Emily shouted as if it were obvious. "Banana Shampoo!"
"Of course, Banana scented shampoo, your favorite!" Her mother repeated. It made perfect sense now.
On the way home they stopped at Emily's Grandmother's house and picked some flowers from the garden. The next morning Emily was excited to be bringing a special gift for her teacher. As Emily entered the classroom she joyfully approached her teacher's desk and presented her with a black tulip that she had picked from her Grandmother's garden.
"My mommy said to tell you even if there were no such things as black flowers that I can color my picture any way I want to. She says I see colors the way everyone should see them, and you know what else…….I have yellow hair because I use Banana scented shampoo!" Emily explained joyously. And with that she skipped off to her desk swinging her brunette pig tails from side to side. Her teacher was silent. Partly because she was shocked and a bit embarrassed, but mostly because she knew the message Emily's mother was relaying to her was true.
Children don't see color as it is in reality, only as it appears in their imagination. If an adult is given three crayons, being the primary colors of red, blue and yellow, they might think that their artistic ability is now limited. Give those same colors of crayons to a child and they will create a world of a thousand things, because in their world anything can be real. There are no rules to limit what they believe is possible. The people they draw may be blue or yellow but through their eyes there is nothing "wrong" with that, and truly the color of a person's skin should not be an issue to begin with. But unfortunately, in the adult world the meaning of color is more than just skin deep.
In High School there was a flyer being secretly passed around informing students of a weekend party. It was on bright green florescent colored paper "Party! Music, Dancing, Food" it read in big bold letters. At the bottom of the flyer in small print it read "No Krackers!"
"Hmmm…." I thought to myself. "Why would the host of this party be drawing so much attention to the fact that there will be no crackers served at the party? Did the money for refreshments get spent elsewhere?" I wondered. I assumed it must have been a typo. As it turned out the phrase "No Krackers!" actually meant there were no white people allowed at the party.
It is wrong and it is sad but racism is everywhere. At some point in everyone's life I believe we have all been its target or witnessed an incident of racism.
Children are born innocent and are naïve to many things around them. Why do adults corrupt their minds with their own narrow minded beliefs about race? If we gave no importance to skin color and we let them color their world as THEY choose to see it, we could learn a thing or two from our children. It may illustrate blue and yellow people picking flowers in a garden filled with black tulips; however, if left untainted by the prejudice of the adult world, as their generation becomes adults themselves the world would be blind of skin color and in turn would be a much friendlier, happy and beautiful place for all of us to live in.
Emily smiles with satisfaction as she admires her art work. Mrs. Nower approaches Emily's desk to inspect her work.
"Who is the person holding the flowers that you've drawn in your picture?" Mrs. Nower asked curiously.
"You are so silly. It's ME!!" Emily shouted enthusiastically.
"There are no such things as black flowers, Emily. Why did you use black and red crayons for your hands and feet when you colored your face pink?" She criticised as her old face wrinkled even more with confusion and disappointment.
"It's pretty, huh?" Emily replied innocently, unsure of neither what Mrs. Nower's question meant nor how to answer it.
After school Emily beamed with pride as she handed the picture she'd drawn to her mother.
"This is a lovely picture of you picking flowers in the garden." Her mother exclaimed.
"
Did she ask why you colored your hair yellow when it is actually brown?"Did she ask why you colored your hair yellow when it is actually brown?" Her mother asked.
"MOM!" Emily shouted as if it were obvious. "Banana Shampoo!"
"Of course, Banana scented shampoo, your favorite!" Her mother repeated. It made perfect sense now.
On the way home they stopped at Emily's Grandmother's house and picked some flowers from the garden. The next morning Emily was excited to be bringing a special gift for her teacher. As Emily entered the classroom she joyfully approached her teacher's desk and presented her with a black tulip that she had picked from her Grandmother's garden.
"My mommy said to tell you even if there were no such things as black flowers that I can color my picture any way I want to. She says I see colors the way everyone should see them, and you know what else…….I have yellow hair because I use Banana scented shampoo!" Emily explained joyously. And with that she skipped off to her desk swinging her brunette pig tails from side to side. Her teacher was silent. Partly because she was shocked and a bit embarrassed, but mostly because she knew the message Emily's mother was relaying to her was true.
Children don't see color as it is in reality, only as it appears in their imagination. If an adult is given three crayons, being the primary colors of red, blue and yellow, they might think that their artistic ability is now limited. Give those same colors of crayons to a child and they will create a world of a thousand things, because in their world anything can be real. There are no rules to limit what they believe is possible. The people they draw may be blue or yellow but through their eyes there is nothing "wrong" with that, and truly the color of a person's skin should not be an issue to begin with. But unfortunately, in the adult world the meaning of color is more than just skin deep.
In High School there was a flyer being secretly passed around informing students of a weekend party. It was on bright green florescent colored paper "Party! Music, Dancing, Food" it read in big bold letters. At the bottom of the flyer in small print it read "No Krackers!"
"Hmmm…." I thought to myself. "Why would the host of this party be drawing so much attention to the fact that there will be no crackers served at the party? Did the money for refreshments get spent elsewhere?" I wondered. I assumed it must have been a typo. As it turned out the phrase "No Krackers!" actually meant there were no white people allowed at the party.
It is wrong and it is sad but racism is everywhere. At some point in everyone's life I believe we have all been its target or witnessed an incident of racism.
Children are born innocent and are naïve to many things around them. Why do adults corrupt their minds with their own narrow minded beliefs about race? If we gave no importance to skin color and we let them color their world as THEY choose to see it, we could learn a thing or two from our children. It may illustrate blue and yellow people picking flowers in a garden filled with black tulips; however, if left untainted by the prejudice of the adult world, as their generation becomes adults themselves the world would be blind of skin color and in turn would be a much friendlier, happy and beautiful place for all of us to live in.
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