holding on to innocence

I just had to share this story...


Today I was making the boys lunch and had "Days of Our Lives" on (yeah, I know I'm one of the last 20 people on Earth that still watches Days...don't judge me). Anyways, theres this actress on the show named Chloe and she has dark-tan skin like me. I wasn't really paying too much attention to the show, but apparently she got blown up or something. So Carson was watching it and asked me, "Mama? What happened to that black girl? Why does she have a cut on her face?"


That totally caught me off guard. Carson has never referred to anyone before by the color of their skin (even though Chloe is actually white). I mumbled something about how she fell and got hurt. Throughout lunch, I couldn't help but feel a little sad that Carson was losing his innocence. He is really at an age where he is starting to notice differences in people. I just didn't realize he had began to take notice in skin color.


So towards the end of lunch, a scene with "Chloe" came on again, and once more Carson asked, "mama? how did that black girl get hurt?" To avoid confusion, I decided to correct him. "Carson, she's actually not black. She's white." Carson looked confused and asserted very quickly, "Her hair is not white! Her hair is black!!"


It took me a second to realize what he was talking about, and then it hit me. Carson wasn't defining her by her skin color, he was defining her by her hair color! So by saying "that black girl" he meant "that girl with black hair."


I laughed and gave him a kiss.


still my sweet, innocent baby.