Not walled cities but spaces to meet

Gabriele Pedrina

You young people know how to overcome differences with enviable simplicity and naturalness when you want to. What often causes us adults to mistrust each other and makes us hostile and suspicious is something you experience as part of the landscape, like a pole that you just have to walk around. I have two stories to tell you: one that I read and one that I witnessed first-hand. The first is about Anna, a girl in fourth grade who asks her dad if she can go to her classmate’s birthday party. “Whose?” he asks. “Jenny’s.” “Jenny? Who’s Jenny?”. “Come on, Dad” the little girl insists “The one with the pigtails”. Her father is not impressed, and the girl snorts: “Yes, you have seen her, Dad. She has a Frozen backpack and purple shoes”. Her father cuts her off at this point and says he will take her to school the next day. As soon as they arrive, Anna sees Jenny and points her out, saying, “There she is!”. Jenny was a black girl, as black as coal. Yet for Anna, it was not her skin that made her different and distinguishable.

Dear reader, thank you for choosing this article.
Want to read more? Ask for a free copy of "The Saint of Miracles"

Ask for Free Copy