In preschool I fell in love with a boy named Roland. He was purple, according to my mother鈥檚 remembrance of my pre-pubescent ramblings, and amazing for his ability to burn ants by magnifying the sun through his thick glasses.
Chances are he grew up to be a scientist 鈥� or a sadist. Hopefully not the latter, but who knows? I don鈥檛 remember him after the age of four.
By Kindergarten I鈥檇 moved on to more macabre things.
After school playdates with a girl named Leisha gave me an unusual fascination with skeletal remains. Her mom made us chicken feet soup and was kind enough to let me collect the remains and bring them home tied around a little cord worn around my neck 鈥� much to my own mother鈥檚 chagrin.
That they were Chinese or that Roland was so dark I thought he was purple was of no consequence to me or my mother. She had bigger fish to fry, dishes to clean and rules to enforce. She had to get to that colour wheel and make sure I made it through kindergarten at the very least.
The whole thing, in a nutshell, is just an example of how children view race 鈥� it鈥檚 nothing more than an afterthought, or a minor detail in a larger story.
How do people forget that as they age?
If humans were better, we鈥檇 cherish what we knew when we started out into the world.
We鈥檇 remember that there鈥檚 no hierarchy based on superficial traits, like pigment.
White supremacists would be relegated to the margins of horror stories, not a regular feature in newspapers across the globe. They wouldn鈥檛 be killing people. They wouldn鈥檛 be spreading hate. They would be gone. Nazis would be a shameful chapter in our shared history.
The misery of Charlottesville has reminded us that鈥檚 not the case, if the comment sections of our local news pages didn鈥檛 open our eyes enough already. Try raising the issue of Syrian refugees, if you think this is a non-issue.
In a few weeks I will send my son to public school and while I鈥檓 excited for him to meet his own Rolands and Leishas, I know this is where allegiances are built, misinformation takes root and he鈥檚 going to start having more access to information that may be both scary or confusing.
I want him going out into the world without fear. He needs to be polite and respectful to strangers and with a desire to help, not a fear of being harmed.
But I also know that I will need to speak with him about all of these things uglier things and more.
I hope he can take on all he learns and keep being the person he is today because so much of what we all need to know to make this world a better place is with us before we even go to kindergarten.
