When I got to the part about Mae Mobley coloring herself in black, I almost cracked my face from smiling so big. When I was in kindergarten, all of the students laid down on big pieces of paper to have our outlines drawn for pictures for parent-teacher night. We were supposed to color ourselves in and then the teachers helped us write things about ourselves on the papers, so our parents had to guess which kid was theirs. I lived in a predominantly white and there was only one black kid in my class. I was friends with him and felt bad he was the only one not demanding the "the skin color crayon!" (because to so many, peach was the only skin color option), so I decided to color myself in black too.
Of course, he had the good sense to use a brown crayon, whereas my picture was quite literally black. On parent-teacher night, my parents walked up and down the pictures and couldn't find me. Finally my teacher took pity on them and told them what had happened. I don't remember how much they cared, but I do remember my dad laughing a lot.
The memory of that makes me really happy. My parents aren't perfectly prejudice-free, but I must have been growing up in an environment that was open enough for me to be colorblind. I'm really thankful, too, because I have a lot of wonderful friends-- of every variety skin color and shade-- whom I'm sure I had the potential to miss out on if I hadn't been raised to be friendly with everyone. It's sad to think how many people weren't/aren't so lucky.
Of course, he had the good sense to use a brown crayon, whereas my picture was quite literally black. On parent-teacher night, my parents walked up and down the pictures and couldn't find me. Finally my teacher took pity on them and told them what had happened. I don't remember how much they cared, but I do remember my dad laughing a lot.
The memory of that makes me really happy. My parents aren't perfectly prejudice-free, but I must have been growing up in an environment that was open enough for me to be colorblind. I'm really thankful, too, because I have a lot of wonderful friends-- of every variety skin color and shade-- whom I'm sure I had the potential to miss out on if I hadn't been raised to be friendly with everyone. It's sad to think how many people weren't/aren't so lucky.
