Martin Luther King and me....

The comment was made in a kindergarten classroom. It was a moderately diverse NYC public school in a middle-upper class neighborhood. The teacher was talking about Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. She had just finished talking about segregation when a young boy piped up, "Boy, I'm glad I'm white!"

Children at this young age tend to have no filter. It was obvious the child meant nothing harmful or hurtful. He had not been raised in a racist household, nor taught there was any difference between him and children of other colors or cultures. What was plain to see was his empathy for the difficult times African-Americans had and his realization that he was not, in fact, black. The teacher understood this and appreciated the charm in his statement.

African-American had a an incredibly difficult time, socially, culturally, professionally, and personally in the 20th century. Here, in one sentence, was a child saying, 'What an awful thing to endure, I'm glad I don't have to deal with that.' Nothing hurtful or harmful intended by his statement, just a child's empathy.