My son started 1st grade & began begging me to have his new best friend over. "Please mom! You will LOVE Stephon! He's just like me! We like the same stuff! We have Mario backpacks & love Nintendo and we love the old games best! Please mom! Can I have Stephon over?" It was endless. I told him that when I had a weekend off we could invite his friend over. Endless stories of how Braden (my son) and Stephon were "just like brothers". I finally had a weekend off & let the boys make plans. I spoke a bit with Stephon's mom, gave her directions to our home. When Stephon jumped out of the car with the same backpack as my kid; Braden proudly proclaimed , once again, loud and proud; "SEE MOM! Twins! We have the same bookbag and everything!" Stephon smiled so big & echoed "SEE MOM!" Stephon's chocolate complexion, black fade and coffee colored eyes. My son's blue eyes and floppy blonde hair in contrast, looking up at us (moms) with huge smiles. The boys 7 then, 13 now. Still brothers. <3

When I turned 12, I was offered the gift of a doll by some family member, one brown skinned or one pale skinned doll. I had never seen a brown skinned one and choose that one because it looked beautiful. Actually I had never met any African people or any people from distant lands. My parents were horrified by this and sent me to a psychologist as thought something had to be abnormal with me. I went through 6 months of why brown, why did I think it was pretty. I am now 72 years old and I still have my doll as well as several more of all types, have been a wet nurse to a Kenyan baby why back in 1972 when living in Finland and having met a Kenyan woman in hospital and she didn't have milk and had to return to Moscow as a diplomat and left her baby with me for 6 months, I became his Godmother, I could write a book on comments feeding my red haired son and my godson with his black hair, some cruel, others naive.