As any good dad would, I could fill a book with funny things my six-year-old son Tyren has said or done. Most of them are related to his being a funny, outgoing kid and natural showman. (I took him to his first baseball game last summer in hopes that he'd want to grow up to play first base for the Brewers; instead, he expressed his desire for a career as a mascot.) Some stories are related to the fact that he can put away three cheeseburgers at a time. But others come from his status as the only black kid in an otherwise pretty white family.
Funny story below the fold.
As you may have gathered, Tyren is adopted. He has a white mom, a white dad, and a white little sister.
A couple months ago, we were in the park in our pretty much white hometown. I was hanging out on a bench watching the kids play. Tyren was trying to work his way into this group of kids when this little girl snapped at him, "No black kids allowed!"
Naturally, I began to stride toward the kid intent on smacking some sense into her. I had the nasty letter to her mother half-written in my head when Tyren smiled and said, "I'm not black. I'm brown."
And you know what? It worked. He was in.
It's a testament that kids only have prejudices their parents instill in them. This girl had obviously heard about black people from her parents, but she had probably never seen one in person. And confronted with the reality - he's just a kid, with skin a slightly darker shade of brown than hers - she got over it.
Wouldn't it be nice if adults were so open to changing their ways of thinking?