"Did you enjoy the King center?" the kindergartner asked. "Huh?", "The King center, when you went?", "Sure" I answered. The little African-American girl was resuming a conversation that we had begun a month ago, completely without preface. "Martin Luther King was killed. Someone shot him." she continued. The little African-American boy that had just turned five piped up. "A white person!" he howled. "Noooo," Nia corrected, "a black person!". "White!" Joel yelled. "Black!" Nia responded. "White!", "Black!", "White!", "Black!" the kids continued, until their teacher came to take them away.
"Carbon dating is wrong! It doesn't tell you how old bones are!" the radio commentator squealed through the car speakers. "Man and dinosaurs existed at the same time. There are cave paintings of dinosaurs...,". Which apparently are more credible than carbon dating. "Dinosaurs were walking the earth even three hundred years ago!". Okay, you got me there. Ben Franklin and the brontosaurus. All the shit they wrote down with quill pens and no one mentioned flying beasts or man-eating monsters. The commentator started taking calls. "How did Noah fit the dinosaurs on the ark?" caller after caller asked. THAT is the only problem you have with this guy's story? "He took babies," he answered, "baby dinosaurs".
Someone called Nia a "black bitch" on the playground the other day. He was black too. And, in kindergarten.
"Thanks for returning my note" I said to the parent quickly. I already know her and her kid has been fucking around in class, hence the note. I was surprised when she started crying. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry" she stammered. "What? Why? It's not your fault, I just need your help," I answered, "it's really not a big deal". "We've had a lot of chaos lately and it's showing and I just feel so bad, you are so nice and I worry that you get stepped on". So nice? I turned around, and spun back to her.
"Are you talking to me?".
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