It often seems that all people want is to fit into society’s standards. As humans, we identify with something or someone because it makes us feel whole and accepted. These days, everyone is looking for equality, and rightly so — everyone deserves human rights.
However, with such a focus on embracing our differences, we forget that boundaries are not always a good thing. Embracing who you are is important to a certain extent, but only identifying with your distinct group leads to even more diversification.
Last week, I learned this lesson from a child I didn’t even know.
Brandi and Nick Benner, parents to an adorable girl named Sophia, took a trip to the store where their daughter could pick out a toy as a reward for using the toilet for a month straight. When the Benner’s went to check out, the cashier questioned the child’s choice.
The store employee questioned if Sophia, a blonde white child, wanted a black doll, considering it didn’t even look like her. After a second, Sophia proudly said “yes” and backed her answer with, “She’s a doctor like I’m a doctor, and she’s pretty like I am pretty.”
Brandi Benner took to Facebook to share this story, and the responses have been overwhelmingly positive, as far as I can tell. Parents have shared their own similar experiences they’ve had with their children. If all of these adults are praising this behavior, why is it so hard for us to use the same childlike mentality throughout our lifetime?
All hair, eye and skin colors are equally beautiful, and regardless of what color they may be a person’s character is what makes the difference. Unfortunately, our society hasn’t gotten to a place where we can celebrate our differences without making a spectacle of it.
When I was younger, my mom never made a big deal of my difference in skin tone, hair color or eye color from my sisters. We don’t look much alike since they are my half sisters. Each year for our birthday, my grandfather gave us dolls commemorating our birthday, but the dolls only came in three varieties: white with blonde hair, white with brown hair and african american girls. Since none of these looked like me, my mom would paint the white dolls with brown hair and make their hair match my black hair.
She did this so I would feel included, but I never noticed until she stated that she painted the dolls’ hair so they’d look more like me. However, once I told her I didn’t care about their hair color, she stopped painting them.
I have lived most of my life entirely color blind, and now I am grateful for that.
Like I said, this is a learned concept. We are born blind to the color of our skin and the societal contexts they have. We love everyone because of the kind of people they are, not because of what they look like.
It is amazing to see many children think like this, and it’s only when adults plant the idea of differences that people are sorted into categories of color.
The younger generation is watching us. As I get older, this truth becomes more and more apparent to me, but it is also exciting. If my generation can work harder on improving our perceptions, the generation observing us can change theirs too. With any luck, eventually we will live in a society that is truly color blind.
Myia Hambrick is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Temple, Georgia.