Being married to an African American woman I have found myself
attending predominantly African American churches at times.
Christmas Eve Sunday we attended such a church. My wife's cousin is
the pastor of this church so the whole family attended before
Christmas dinner. I really enjoyed the service and didn't even
notice that my five year old daughter, from a previous marriage, and
I were the only white folk attending. On our way home my little girl
asked me if we could start going to that church all the time. I said
to her that it was a possibility. Then she told me that on the
weekends that she stayed with her mother she would still have to go
to her white church. That statement coming from a five year old
little girl bothered me. I had not raised her to think like that. I
was pretty sure that race was never an issue with her mother as
well. For a moment I wondered what I should do. Being half of an
inter-racial marriage I didn't want to ignore this yet, I wasn't
real sure how to approach the subject with a five year old. I
thought about waiting to have the conversation when my wife was with
me but I decided against that. I figured I was her father and I
could handle this on my own. I sat there thinking to myself that I
would rather explain where babies came from then go into this with a
5 year old. Could she really comprehend any of this anyway? So I
started out slow. I asked her what sort of church we had just
attended. She sort of shrugged her shoulders and said "I don't
know". So I dug a little deeper. I asked her again what kind of
church she goes to when she is not with me? Once again she stated
that she went to a white church. Just hearing her say this sent a
cold chill down my spine. I decided to just go for broke. So I asked
her, "What makes that church a white church?" Her answer totally
took me off guard. She looked at me with her big brown eyes and
said, " Because the outside of the church is white". The church is
painted white on the outside. Guess my little girl does go to a
white church after all. I guess it takes a grown up to complicate
things. Children don't see color. They see people. We as parents
teach them to see the difference. There isn't a racist bone in my
body yet I assumed the worst when my little girl said "White
church". If only we could all think like children maybe the world
would be a better place.