When I heard President Donald Trump say he had decided that racism is wrong at the age of 5, his words took me back about 65 years to the lesson I learned at the same age.
In our tiny delta town east of the Mississippi River, even a preschooler could see the division lines between “white” people and “colored” people (the term we used for African-American people).
At Sunday school, I learned that Jesus loved “all the little children of the world,” in all colors.
But my crayon box brought me questions …
“Why doesn’t the white crayon look like me, and which crayon is right for our ‘colored’ babysitter?”
My mother and I discussed the dilemma and settled on the simple answer that still rings true today.
People are pretty much the same under the skin.
Years later, Dr. Martin Luther King nailed it when he said we should see people through the “content of their character” rather than the “color of their skin.”
Fact is, 5-year-olds often internalize basic truths that can be a centering influence for life.
When extremists from both sides try to pull us into one category or label, that ground serves as a firm foundation.
It is an inner reality — keeping us balanced — when others try to tip us over.
Thanks be to God for his universal blanket of love, to my mother for being the right person to help me understand it and to President Trump for sharing that he also came to the same truth at such a tender age.
Our president is not a racist.
Lonnie Oglesby,
Port Angeles