Little More than Cut-Outs Holding Hands

"Mommy let’s make those paper cut-outs that all hold hands." Lola gazed thoughtfully at her six-year-old daughter, Keisha. The toddlers in their day home were napping so maybe it would work.

"Please Miss Lola," Sally begged dancing around with clasped hands. "We haven't done it for a million years."

"Well, no, we haven't," the caregiver remarked drily. "We weren't around a million years ago, and neither was anyone else."

She went to the door of the fenced off yard where three or four children were playing on playground equipment.

  "Judith, Kaden, and Sara come in now. We have an interesting project ready to start.”

After they trouped in and were settled around small tables, she and her assistant showed them how identical cut-outs holding hands were made by folding the paper like an accordion. The leaders prepared a set of four for each child. They were given instructions to colour them which they eagerly did with varying results. Not a few looked more like they were scribbled, rather than coloured in the traditional sense of the word, but the young artists were proud of the green faces and purple arms, or similar decorations.

    Lola proceeded to place them on the bulletin board. While the children were beaming with approval at their creations, Lola produced a stiff piece of plastic tinted a medium brown. She tacked it in front of the first set of cut-out dolls.

  "No, no, no!" Judith exclaimed. "I don't want my dollies to have brown faces!"

"Why not," Lola asked, pretending surprise?  Judith shrugged her shoulders, and Lola turned to the next set of four.

  "No way!" Kaden exclaimed, "I don't want black babies!"

   "Why not?" Lola asked again.

 “What  if I made only one of your four with dark skin.”  She lifted the plastic and placed it back down over the first cut-out in the row.

He shook his head vigorously.

“But they were happy together before. See they all had smiling faces, why should it make a difference if  I make one of them brown?”

More than one little person was biting their lower lip thoughtfully. "And see, they are all holding hands. It’s not their colour that makes them different

"It isn't how you coloured them either," Lola's assistant added. "since they are all made out of paper."

Two or three children slowly nodded their heads.

"Make mine brown!" Keisha said. "Mommy always said we should get a black baby."

“Why would you want a black baby?” Sara still looked puzzled.

“Because they are the same on the inside!”

Sara’s face cleared, “I want one, no two of mine to be brown.”

"No, make mine brown, no make mine brown!" the children shouted. And the adults had to teach them not to push and shove!

     Lola and her assistant smiled at each other. Oh if it was only that easy to convince adults how similar humans are, regardless of colour, creed, wealth, education, talent etc!