What I have to say today...some may find offensive or controversial. I am merely voicing truths about my own simplistic views as a child and recalling, as accurately as possible moments from my past. All I offer is an honest look at a past moment in time as it is recorded in my memory and an honest thought about prejudice and hatred as I see it.
Prejudice
I remember what a scary thing it was for me starting to school in the first grade. My family had recently moved from our country home where I had been surrounded by relatives galore. Our home was in a community where my mother had grown up and lived all her life with grandparents, aunts and uncles across the road from us. Second, third and fourth cousins lived nearby and I was never quite clear on which people in our little church family were actually kin or just friends of the family. It was like living engulfed in a great big security blanket. Everyone knew me or my mother and daddy or my grandparents or someone in my family. All I have to say even now if I return for a visit--or most likely a funeral these days--is that I am Eva Nell's daughter and they "know" me.
However, in August of 1967 we moved one county to the north just weeks before I was to begin first grade. In our little country school, there had been no kindergarten program--only Head Start. My memories of Head Start are:
1) I got to ride the school bus with my big sister. The bus driver was one of those mystery people that might, or might not be kin who went to church with us. His first name was Army and he let me sit behind him and operate the lever that opened and closed the door.
2) The lady who taught it was a cousin. I called her by her first name instead of Mrs. Perdue.
3) I already knew my alphabet and how to read simple sentences thanks to my big sister, who is now in fact, a school teacher. She was extremely bossy and began teaching me everything as soon as she began to learn it.
4) We spent a lot of time playing with a "Pretend Store" where I often got to run the cash register and take money because I could count so well.
5) My favorite part of Head Start was when, during the bus ride home in the afternoon, we stopped at the store. This was owned by another distant cousin and if I had any money, I got to buy a pack of candy cigarettes or a coke--which was not usually a Coca Cola--but a Grape Nehi.
So with all that in mind, here I was starting first grade in a city that has not just one school, filled with familiar faces--for the whole community--but about 6 or 7 elementary schools filled with strangers. It wasn't as big as Birmingham, but it was a much larger world than where I had come from. My first surprise was finding two black girls and a Jewish girl in my class.
Both of the black girls were fairly aggressive towards all the other kids and most everyone was a little afraid of them. Being raised with several boy cousins who found out first hand that making fun of my red hair, freckles or short stature earned a quick, hard kick in the shins (or worse) had given me confidence in defending myself. So I quickly earned the respect of Brenda and Markeetha when I made the boys in the classroom pay in like kind. Then they deemed themselves my protectors as well. Any boy who messed with me--had to deal with the two of them. I won't say that we became fast friends, but I think we developed a mutual respect for one another.
The Jewish girl was really fascinating to me. I'd never seen a real Jewish person. Her dark complexion and hair were something I coveted. I hated my red hair and freckles. I didn't really understand what the big deal was when one of the other kids explained to me one day at lunch, "She's Jewish!" like they were saying "She's got leprosy!" I think I remember just staring and trying to determine what it was about her that made her be Jewish. To me, it was a thing to be envied. I had been going to church almost from the hour of my birth and I was no dummy. I knew that Jesus was a Jew. How cool to be a Jew like Jesus! I thought it must be wonderful. Sadly, I don't even remember her name. She moved away during or at the end of the school year and I don't remember every hearing about her again.
I know now that ignorance and prejudice have caused many misplaced ideas and hatreds through-out time. They continue today. But, as a very naive, simplistic 6-year old, those thoughts had no home in my mind. I did not understand them then and I can't find the logic in them now.
Often, I think about how in learning about God's love and forgiveness, a child can accept that whole truth and believe that it applies to all people. So why do adults have so much difficulty with it? Why do prejudices and hatreds still exist among different races, religions, cultures? Just my thought of the day.
And He called a little child to Himself and put him in the midst of them,
3And said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all].
4Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5And whoever receives and accepts and welcomes one little child like this for My sake and in My name receives and accepts and welcomes Me.
6But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in and [a]acknowledge and cleave to Me to stumble and sin [that is, who entices him or hinders him in right conduct or thought], it would be better ([b]more expedient and profitable or advantageous) for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be sunk in the depth of the sea.
7Woe to the world for such temptations to sin and influences to do wrong! It is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the person on whose account or by whom the temptation comes! Matthew 18: 2-7 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
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