My 9-year-old son came home from school one day this week and began discussing politics. He asked me who I was going to vote for in the election next week. I told him and then he told me that at school that day his friend Seth (not his real name) said he did not want a black guy to be president. My son asked him why, and Seth replied that he didn't like black people.
My son then asked Seth if he was a racist. "What's a racist?" Seth asked.
"A racist is someone who doesn't like people of other races or colors," my son said.
"Oh. Yeah, I'm a racist," Seth replied, as if it were just another way to talk about yourself. Why yes, now that I know what a numismatist is, I do enjoy coin collecting!
My son went on to explain that this was not a good thing and asked Seth why he was a racist. Seth told my son, matter-of-factly, that he just did not like black people. Gibby and I had a conversation about this and he knew already that it wasn't right. What was worse to me was that I know kids his age really are still expressing the views of their parents, so Seth's parents are almost surely feeding this attitude to their children. It just blew my mind.
Race is not an issue for me in this election, but maybe it should be. If electing a black president does anything positive to change the opinions of people like this, it can only be a good thing. Then again, the darker color of our president's skin would probably precede anything good Obama might do in office in the mind of a racist. Such is the preset lens of racism.
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