The Lie Even a Six Year Old Believes!!!!!!

         Last Wednesday….hmmmm my stories seem to happen on Wednesdays… Andrea, Aaron T and I took some of the young kids at CHAT, aka Little Tykes, to an event that encouraged interaction between West End kids and East End kids.   One particular game we played required groups of three people with different color eyes. My group had one little white girl, one six year old black girl and myself. The task was for one person to close their eyes and have another person describe the third person’s physical characteristics. The object of the game was for the individuals who were blinded to be able to mentally picture the person being described without using their eyes. We all took turns describing one another. The black girl was the first one to close her eyes and the white girl had to describe my physical characteristics. The white girl said, “Umm, nice teeth, ummmmmmm and a nice smile!” Then it was the white girl’s turn to close her eyes and the black girl decided to describe me as well. The black girl said, “She’s Black, ummmmmmm, nice hair, ummmmm nice hair!” I automatically noticed the language difference that each girl expressed. The white girl clearly knew I was black, but didn’t choose to use race as a description. The black girl immediately used race to describe me. Then the Clincher happened!! It was my turn to close my eyes and the black girl decided to describe the white girl. The black girl said, “She has nice hair and THE NICE SKIN!!!!!!!! I was speechless for a few moments. Even a six year old girl learned and believed the lie that white people have THE NICE SKIN!  That is certainly not true and yet this little girl believed so.  Black people cannot have nice skin????? Preposterous!!!!!!! How can I change her mind??? How can I positively influence her view and rid her of this ridiculous belief??? Lord have mercy!!! It is going to take more prayer than I thought!! It is also going to take people in the community…black and white… that show Christ’s love for people of all different skin colors!!! We as in the community need to be different than the rest of the world!!  We have the opportunity to impact her life and the lives of all the children here in Church Hill. We need to continue to speak out against racism and let our actions match this passion for change!!!