The Danger of children inheriting racism

 Reeves Point of View:  The danger of children inheriting racism

I can remember being told by another kid that he couldn’t play with me anymore because I was black.

When I was about 7 or 8 years old, there was a kid (white) who I used to regularly go and play.  He had all the cool toys and we would play outside of his apartment.

Then, one day when I went to see him, he told me that he could no longer play with me because I was black.  

That was it.  No other explanation.  No other interaction.  We never spoke again.   I found out later that the reason why was do to an incident his mother had.  However, that incident had nothing to do with me.  Unfortunately, he and I never spoke again.

Almost 50 years later, I still remember that day.  That statement has had a lasting impact on me.

But I also wonder, what impact that day may have had on him.  

I have absolutely no idea what impact of his mother telling him that he couldn’t play with me because of me being black.  I don’t know how that shaped him.  I don’t know how that shaped his views on race.   

All I know that his mother (as an adult) and for her own reason took a course of action to plant within her child’s mind something that was literally NOT there 24 hours before.   And not only did he receive that something, he acted on it.   

Again, I stress.   I don’t know what adult he became.  He may have realized the powerfully bigoted statement that she made and how wrong it was to plant that in the mind of a child.  

Again, I was 7 or 8 so this was around 1976 so this time was about a few years after the civil rights of the 60s had produced the voting rights acts, the civil rights and landmark integration across all spectrums.  

I understand that progress is slow so this type of behavior so close to the 1960s should not have been a surprise.  Surely we shouldn’t see that in 2021.

I recently (as in today) heard reports from elementary school teachers saying that they had been hearing children saying “they didn’t want to play a child because they were Chinese”.    Now, where would an elementary child get that thought process from?  Did they get it from home?  Did they see it on the news (as an elementary child, I NEVER paid attention to the news)?   Is it due to the Coronavirus?   

I don’t know how this came to be but somewhere out there, there is a child losing their childhood after being exposed to bigotry and another child who has lost their childhood after being taught to promote bigotry.

If we are truly committed to protecting our children, shouldn’t we start with STOPPING the inheritance of racism??