He Hesitated to Call His Skin Black Because He Thought It Was Racist
He was only nine years old and already being muted.
When I was in student teaching, I had the most amazing little boy as my student. We’ll call him Matt. He was absolutely the most precious and inquisitive nine-year-old boy I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in a long time.
But sadly, whenever I think of him, this is the memory that comes to mind.
It was black history month and that day my host teacher and I lead a lesson on Rosa Parks. As most classes go, we asked the children what they understood about Rosa and her importance in Black History.
We received a variety of wonderful answers, the kids were very engaged with the lesson, their little hands shooting up faster than we could speak. As we took turns calling on everyone, some hands lowered as the wait took too long, but Matt’s stayed up.
I can’t say that I’m glad I called on him. Personally, I never want to see that pained look in a young boy’s eyes again. But in a way, I am happy I did, because we all learned a really important lesson that day.
The words that came out of Matt’s mouth weren’t the ones I expected. Our conversation started off fine. He wanted to give his version of the answer, so I let him. Matt told…
