SY02 got a parcel today. She was out so it got delivered to the neighbours across the street. She knocked them up after the school run, nobody home. So she periodically sent SY03 over while preparing dinner.
On one of his visits he thought he saw someone returning home. SY02 asked him to describe this person. Being 9, and an innocent 9 years old, he described the man as being black. This was enough to confirm that indeed this was the correct neighbour.
Shortly afterwards there was a knock at the door, and it was the neighbour bringing the parcel over. Nice chap.
At this point SY03 comes trumpeting down the stairs just as SY02 was closing the door, and with the decibel level only achievable by an over enthusiastic naive child announces triumphantly "See, I told you, he is black!". The door not quite shut, and the man just walking away after concluding his good deed.
SY03 has now just learned how this would be interpreted, interspersed with a potted history of the slave trade and black oppression. He is now beside himself and racked with grief.
I haven't even got home yet
So now the neighbours think we're racist, and my son is a gibbering wreck.
On one of his visits he thought he saw someone returning home. SY02 asked him to describe this person. Being 9, and an innocent 9 years old, he described the man as being black. This was enough to confirm that indeed this was the correct neighbour.
Shortly afterwards there was a knock at the door, and it was the neighbour bringing the parcel over. Nice chap.
At this point SY03 comes trumpeting down the stairs just as SY02 was closing the door, and with the decibel level only achievable by an over enthusiastic naive child announces triumphantly "See, I told you, he is black!". The door not quite shut, and the man just walking away after concluding his good deed.
SY03 has now just learned how this would be interpreted, interspersed with a potted history of the slave trade and black oppression. He is now beside himself and racked with grief.
I haven't even got home yet
So now the neighbours think we're racist, and my son is a gibbering wreck.
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