It took an incident between a dad, his young kid, and a mom to help me write this editorial and I am hoping that others would chime in.
The little boy came home and his dad asked him who his best friend was. The little boy started to answer by giving his dad the name of his best friend when the mom interrupted to ask if his best friend was “the little Chinese boy with the glasses.”
The dad quickly interrupted to say that he only wanted to know the name of his son’s best friend and nothing more and the little boy quickly provided the name of his best friend.
Later on after their son had gone to bed the parents had a discussion about the incident and they both agreed that this is why we are all given names; so that we could be quickly identified amongst ourselves. To identify someone through race, color, or creed would only promote discrimination amongst our kids and after all, are we adults not the ones who teach kids their values and how to see things around them?
The parents both agreed that the mom should not have identified their son’s best friend by saying “the little Chinese boy with the glasses.” She could have asked a different question. Something like “the little boy who lives on such a street” or the little boy who you play with most of the time.”
Each time we identify someone by their race, color, or creed, we are inadvertently promoting discrimination without even knowing it and when we do this with our kids it is even worse because we are inadvertently teaching them how to discriminate and in turn they will do the same with others.
Just my two cents for today.