I’m not black, I’m dark brown.

Kelly M.,
Indonesia.

My six words were spoken by my daughter when she was seven years old. I am From Texas, my family tree consists of Irish and English immigrants and Cherokee Native Americans. We generally look Caucasian, but all five siblings have slightly different skintones. I now live in Indonesia, I’m a single Mom with an older daughter who’s father is Turkish-Italian-American, she has lovely olive skin, and I have one daughter from Southern India , she has lovely dark chocolate skin. Many years ago, I came across this great set of coloured pencils, made by a German company called Lyra. They make a box of coloured pencils that are all in different skin tones. When my kids were small and had friends over, we used to sit around drawing and I would pass around the box and the kids would try to find the pencil that matched their skin tone. So, one day, when my youngest daughter was confronted by a little boy taunting her, who told her she was black, she simply said, “I’m not black, I’m dark brown” . What he meant as an insult, she thought of as a colour. She was only seven and at the time, I thought, thank goodness she doesnt know what he means. Maybe I’m a dreamer, but I hope my children always think of them selves as just another one of the many colors in the box.