This picture is from a Corretta Scott King Award winning book. I think it is called, "Ellington was not a street." I have to go back to the website to double check.
Made me think of my little 7 year old who went to science camp last week in Minnesota. She came running to the car to greet me after the first day and said, "I made new friends. Three brown skins and some white ones." Ever since she was a baby, she has preferred brown skinned dolls and when she learned to talk she would ask, "When do I get to wear the brown skin?" That didn't stop me from feeling the immediate urge to say, "Shh!" so that nobody would hear her.
It wasn't meant in any offensive way. My 9 year old used to name other children by the color of shirt they were wearing when she was a highly verbal toddler. "Pink is goin a find the potty. Red is on the slide, Mommy. That red kid, he goin a go to the swings now. Now I can go on the slide. Watch, Mommy."
Not sure that has anything to do with anything--but I thought it was something. Where we live now, there are not many variations of skin or even hair or eye color in the classroom or on the playground. Most people are blonde and fair skinned. For my daughter, meeting people who didn't look the same was interesting and noteworthy. It was the first thing she wanted to tell me about when she ran to the car.
I was stuck without much to say about why I told her to, "Shh!" except that we just don't talk about people's skin. Kind of sad--because she wanted to say how beautiful it was to her.
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