June 05, 2007

from the mouth of babes...

On the metro today there were two little boys and a girl, travelling with a minder. One little boy was caucasian and one was mixed-race (multi-ethnic to you!) They were doing some kind of skin colour comparison or having a discussion about racial differences because they were inspecting each others knuckles and palms and I heard the mixed-race child say: “ ...(something I couldn’t hear)... usually mixed-race.”

A few of us were watching this mutual inspection with amusement, but what caused people to burst into broad smiles across the carriage was when the white child said to the mixed-race child, very loudly, in a sort of now-please-don’t-exaggerate tone of voice:
You are not black. You are CHESTNUT.

No comments: