I went to the hairdresser, and this little girl was playing when I walk in. She stops and comes right to me, and says I’ve never seen anything like that before. She was so cute and sweet about it. Like she wanted to really know what it was. “It’s like…” she started to say, and I remember her words just trailing off in wonder. She asked me if it was real. I said yeah, my skin is like freckles.

She reached out to touch my neck. She couldn’t have been more than 5 or 7 years old, but she had a certain maturity about her. Her response to my difference was curiosity and caution, not fear. Infants often have a similar response to me…they trace the color contrast of my skin.

So where does the fear reaction come from? Growing up does peel away at our innocence. Instead of exploring differences, we teach the behavior to respond with fear when we encounter something that is different from ourselves. Sigh.