Racism is taught in the home

My daughter is one of my contacts and I am not going to out her, but I need to tell a compelling story, so I have changed her name, My daughter Ciara's first job was in a suburb of Philadelphia at a school as a substitute teacher. After my wife gave her how to win an interview class, she passed and was hired after the first interview. The principal wrote a very nice blurb about my daughter coming to this school and on my daughter's first day, it ended up being her last day, based upon a conversation with a very young child, in front of her mother introducing my daughter.

It seems the parent(s) of this child had prepared this child, or so they thought, because of my daughter's first name. Ciara is the name of an Irish Saint, but this child's parent(s) had told the child that there are some people that have darker skin than you, and you are not to react in any way because of their skin color.

The statement by the parent(s) was unintentional, but racist, based on a name and a skin color.

On my daughter's first day she met this little boy and his mother and the child made an observation out-loud, that had his mother cringing.

He said (comparing his arm to my daughter's arm) "Look Mom, her skin color isn't darker than mine, it's the same."

My daughter suffered through the day without an emotional outward sign, but called me on her way home. In between the sobs, she told me what had transpired and she stated she could not work there, and would I be upset if she looked for other jobs.

The child Ciara told me about was about 6 years old. Apparently had never been exposed to persons of color.

I was, and always remain, proud of my children and their ability to see all people as just people.

However this event just shows that racism is a learned behavior, and learned at a very young age by both word and action, and it is parenting that needs to be learned as well, such as train the trainer, but in life as well as business.