Until I was eight, I lived at 57th and Stony Island in Chicago. For those not familiar, this was an (almost) all black poor ghetto, even in the mid-1950s.
My sister (one year older) and I were the only white children in our classes. In first and second grade, none of the kids, black or white, cared about skin color. There were nice kids and mean kids, ones we wanted to play with and the ones that hogged the swing set.
I do remember thinking that black people had the coolest hair, like little slinkys and would trade a long blond hair for one of theirs to play with if the teacher was boring.
In third grade, my sister started getting flack for being different and having white skin, so my economically challenged parents moved to a small house in the suburbs.
Prejudice is a learned behavior. My sister and I have experienced it.
I understand why black and Native American people teach their kids to fear whites. It is a matter of survival for them in America. Their social contract has been violated time and time again.
I do not understand why white people fear blacks and Native Americans, but it is definitely a learned behavior. Don’t teach it.
My dad taught us that all people are God colored, and the color of their skin matters about as much as the color of their hats. You take people as individuals and accept or reject them on their actions toward you.