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January 07, 2007
Colorblindness of Youth
The boy has a simple way of distinguishing people, their likenesses, and even anthropomorphic objects: he describes them by the dominant color of their clothing.
So, for instance, when he sees Will Ferrell in Elf, the label assigned, of course, is "green man." The wife's stepbrother is quite consistently robed in University of Georgia colors, and is quite tall, so he's "big red man."
I know this trait will likely lead to some awkward moments -- indeed, it already has, like when he was at a neighbor boy's Thomas-themed birthday party, and was loudly excited at seeing a model of the train engine known on the show as "Lady," which happened to have a black paint job.
I wasn't there, but I wish I could have been a fly on the wall near a couple of African-American women partygoers when the boy was crying out "Look, Mama, a black Lady!"
Ah, the innocence of children..
Community | By joe lance | 09:53 AM