Boxed Lunches and Racism

There is a grade 7 learner at my school, let’s call him “M.N.”, who always comes to the library to eat lunch with me and a group of his friends. I first mentioned him in this post from March 2015. He watches a lot of US movies, particularly racing movies, and is known among my friends for his insightful and often strange questions that he poses to me while we eat. Some of my favourites have included:

• How many times has someone tried to use reverse psychology on you? Does Joe use it?
• If someone tried to steal your ride, what would you do for revenge?
• What is one problem that you grew up with that you will die with?
• How many times have you been doing a front-flip or a back-flip or a side-flip and fallen on your face?

As you can see, the topics can vary greatly and almost anything is fair game. So, I wasn’t surprised when M.N. started our lunchtime conversation with, “I want to ask you a question, but I don’t think you will like it…”

Me: Well, ask me and we will see.

M.N.: Why is it that white people do not like black people so much?

Me: That sounds like a very important question. Why do you think that white people don’t like black people?

M.N.: Well, it’s just that they kept passing these laws that say that black people must live in one place and white people must live in another. It’s like they don’t want to live near us. So I can only think that they must hate us.

Me: You are right. They passed many laws that said that white people must do these things and black people must do something different, like having different rules, different schools, different jobs, even different drinking fountains. Many white people, especially in historical times, believed many things that were not true about black people.

M.N.: Like what?

Me: Well, for example, they believed the lie that black people are not able to manage jobs that are in businesses or offices. They said that they are only able to do work with their hands. So, they prevented black people from being able to work certain jobs or become the boss in a company.

M.N.: [disbelief] My father worked at the hospital for many years. He also worked in an office at the bank for a long time. He was responsible for budgets with millions of dollars. How can they believe these things?

Me: I am not sure, but I think part of the problem is that they don’t hear these stories like the one of your father. They only hear the things that are not true and they don’t have someone to tell them the truth. We must tell them these stories like your father’s to show them what is true.

M.N.: But, why should I be the one who has to tell the story when you are the one who knows them and can tell it to them.

Me: [thinking both, “I’m totally getting schooled by a 7^th grader” and “my kids are brilliant!”] You are right, M.N. I can do that.

… and so I kept my promise. 

Source: http://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-there-s-so-much-more-to-tell-about-africa-than-the-usual-stories-about-war-famine-and-komla-dumor-67-26-66.jpg