Take Your Glasses Off

A Tale of Clouded or Clear Vision.

Julia Becerra | June 27th 2019

On a recent travel, during a sunny summer afternoon , I met a 7 ½ -year old girl, who was playing on the beach . 

“Play in the shade under the umbrella!” her grandmother shouted to her, visibly concerned about the kid’s skin exposure to a 3:00 p.m. sun-rays.

An hour later, when the young girl, Aliza, came back under the umbrella, to get something to drink, she got a reprimand from her grandmother.  “Look at you!  You are even a darker black girl!  You don’t need more sun, you don’t tan you just get ‘blackie’ “! 

Aliza took a lot at her dark skin and nodded.  “Grandma, why my friend Camille is allowed to play under the sun?”  she asked.

“Her skin is fair, she does not get darker like you.  Check yourself out there is nothing white on you!”   Her Grandmother replied joking.  She laughed when Aliza started to check her own skin as if she had never seen herself at all.

A few days later,  I saw Aliza again, she had a big knee scrape.  She had gone over the weekend to visit her grandfather’s country house and while playing she had felt badly and gotten a bit hurt.  The scraped knee didn’t look good, the white tissue was exposed.

I asked her about it.  “What is that?”

“Oh, that is nothing, she said.  That is my white part.  It turns out I am white in the inside!” she said smiling.  “I showed it  to Grandma and told her I can continue playing under the sun because after all, I am white as well , just in the inside.”

I was so impressed by the clear vision of this 7 ½-year old girl!  She was right on her innocence!  In a country that has gone from being more open to people of all colors  and nationalities to being ignorant of the painful stories of  immigrants  and  the discrimination of people of color, I could not help but think of the enlightened rationality of this child.

Her reasoning made me think, that perhaps there is hope that future generations become more acceptant of each other regarding of race, religion, sexual orientation and skin color.  Perhaps if new parents plant that seed in their kids, or allowed them to be innocent like Aliza is,  we could embrace a lighter, friendlier, better life.

There are  other things I learned from Aliza, but that one struck me the most!  She simply realized  we are all part of the same human race after all. 

 Suddenly that vision was so clear. There was no need to wear any glasses to improve it. 

Just for that moment, it all made sense.  A minute later I read the news and I knew the vision was over!  But for Aliza still is! 

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