Yes, that's what I mean. Your brain wasn't constructed that way, your community was, and its laws confirmed that there was a difference. Someone else here posted that if a White person said they didn't notice when they first met a Black person that the person was Black they were lying, but I remember the first person I met who I was told…
Yes, that's what I mean. Your brain wasn't constructed that way, your community was, and its laws confirmed that there was a difference. Someone else here posted that if a White person said they didn't notice when they first met a Black person that the person was Black they were lying, but I remember the first person I met who I was told (afterwards) was Black, a slightly older girl named Shelley. I was struck by how pretty she was, and we played all afternoon. Later I said something admiring about her to a neighbor girl, who said "She's colored." I was puzzled at the word and asked what she meant. I don't think she really knew either, it was just something she'd heard her father say. Shelley's mother did housework for them so she'd been to my neighbor's house and they played. I think my neighbor was just possessive, jealous that Shelley and I were making friends too, so she tried to say something that would put me off her and used a word she'd gleaned was derogatory. Neither of us had a concept of "difference," except that Shelley was pretty and smart and cool.
I'd be interested to know how they define it ("ideas"). My friend in the story--a profoundly, actively anti-racist person I'm still close to at 70--was well past 5 when she tried to nip my friendship with Shelley in the bud by announcing to me that she was "colored." But I doubt she had an "idea" other than "this is something my dad thinks is bad."
Yes, that's what I mean. Your brain wasn't constructed that way, your community was, and its laws confirmed that there was a difference. Someone else here posted that if a White person said they didn't notice when they first met a Black person that the person was Black they were lying, but I remember the first person I met who I was told (afterwards) was Black, a slightly older girl named Shelley. I was struck by how pretty she was, and we played all afternoon. Later I said something admiring about her to a neighbor girl, who said "She's colored." I was puzzled at the word and asked what she meant. I don't think she really knew either, it was just something she'd heard her father say. Shelley's mother did housework for them so she'd been to my neighbor's house and they played. I think my neighbor was just possessive, jealous that Shelley and I were making friends too, so she tried to say something that would put me off her and used a word she'd gleaned was derogatory. Neither of us had a concept of "difference," except that Shelley was pretty and smart and cool.
I’ve read that by age five children have been inculcated with ideas about race.
I'd be interested to know how they define it ("ideas"). My friend in the story--a profoundly, actively anti-racist person I'm still close to at 70--was well past 5 when she tried to nip my friendship with Shelley in the bud by announcing to me that she was "colored." But I doubt she had an "idea" other than "this is something my dad thinks is bad."