Living the Dream

Wesley has a magnetic calendar in his room. When I was setting up the month of August, Wesley noticed the magnet to mark Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and asked who that was. I eagerly gave a short, five-year-old's lesson on MLK, racism and the civil rights movement. We talked about his cousin who has a black father and our president. Wesley wondered if he had some skin that was white and some skin that was black. In order to point out how skin color could vary, even within a certain race, I mentioned a friend of ours who has very dark black skin. To which Wesley replied, "Like a ninja?" Um, nope, not really. After I attempted to clarify my explanation, Wesley said, "Well, they probably could hide really well in the dark, though." Perhaps we will revisit this conversation in January when we use the MLK Day magnet!