I remember doing a porch talk with my students some years back and I would ask them “the first time they realized they were Black” and 80% of those stories took place at school with statements just like that. Them students were born in the 00s…
🚨 DAMN.
Ruby Bridges said the moment she finally understood what was happening during school integration was when a little white boy told her:
“My mom said I can’t play with you because you’re a nigger.”
She was SIX.
And she said hearing that felt like “a huge weight lifted,” because suddenly everything made sense.
Why the classrooms were empty.
Why adults were screaming.
Why U.S. Marshals had to escort her to school.
Not because of anything she did.
Just because of the color of her skin.
A six-year-old child realizing an entire country was angry at her for existing.