So this weekend we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Jonny does not have school on Monday and last Friday, his school had an assembly presumably about Martin Luther King Jr. (henceforth “MLK”) and his great contributions to humankind in America.

The problem is that Jonny does not really understand what MLK did. He came home and said this: “Daddy, did you know that if your skin turns colors you need to go see Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to make it better!”

I asked him what else he learned about MLK… he said, “He helped people at church. Like we do!” I agreed with him and left it at that.

I want to teach Jonny about MLK, but in order to do so properly, I would have to teach him about racism. The concept is beyond the kid to comprehend (and might I add, RIGHTLY SO).

To teach him about racism would make him see peoples’ skin colors and then acknowledge the differences. Right now, someone’s skin color is about as important to him as their eye color (which is to say, it matters to him about as much as what color Legos he is using to build his lego house).

And to tell him that ” ‘at one time’ people thought more highly of one skin color than the other…and that is wrong” is a little bit like saying “Don’t think about white elephants…because it is wrong.”

The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind…until I put it there…to tell him not to think that way.

I think the dream Dr. King had was that each person would see things through the eyes of little Jonny. And I want to keep that innocence in him as long as I can.