A Skin-Deep Assumption

(I’m browsing a popular video game store, with my young daughter. We are wandering around when one of the staff disappears into a back room.)

Daughter: “Daddy, where did the black one go?”

(I’m shocked. We never refer to anyone by their skin colour; the employee did have very dark skin. Was it her grandad? The kids at nursery? Before I could think what to say, she asks again.)

Daughter: “Daddy, the black one, where did he go?”

Me: “Now, you know that’s not how we talk about people. We don’t call them by the colour of their skin.”

Daughter: “No, daddy, the one in the black shirt.”

(He appeared in a jet black t-shirt. Thankfully, he thought it funny and smiled and waved at her.)