What would you have done?

Let me ask you a question.

If a child saw you and started yelling about your skin color at you, what would you do?

This happened to me a few days ago while I was visiting my local park. I'd just gone for a run and was getting ready to leave when I heard a child yelling. When I figured out where he was, I realized was looking and pointing at me while yelling, “チャイロだ！“(You’re brown!)

I was in shock, my heart fluttered, and add I moved my bicycle into position to leave, I debated whether or not to say something to the boy.

“It's his parent's responsibility to make him into a respectable member of society“

“I mean, he's not wrong, I am brown skinned“

“What could you possibly say to that, anyway? Don't point out the obvious?“

I decided to leave, and as I ride my ママチャリ bike (A type of bicycle Japanese mothers typically use. ), I couldn't shake this feeling of dissatisfaction I had. That's when I realized. It's not what he said, but how he said it that unsettled me. He must have been 5 or 6 years old. Children say things out of pocket all the time. However, children are also sponges that absorb and process the information in their environment. And that child's environment and life up to that point least him to yell “チャイロ" at a brown person.

I also remembered my book, Chocolate Man. The boy who gave me that idea had a much different tone to his voice. It was not one of ill intent, but rather one of wonder and honest shock. I always wanted to ask that boy why he said what he did and if he really thought I was made of chocolate. Though this time was a different person, I didn't want to lose that chance a second time.

So I went back.

As I rode back to the place where that boy was yelling, I tried to imagine how I would go about the conversation. And here is where I would like to say that it went absolutely as I imagined . That we both met that situation and appreciation of what we learned. That's not what happened.

Since time has passed, I don't remember exactly the exchange that we had. But to the best of my memory this is how it happened.

“Excuse me, have you never seen a person with brown skin before? “

“…Sorry.”

“I wasn't asking for an apology, I'm simply asking you if you ever saw someone who looks like me before. “

“…”

“I couldn't stop thinking of why you would yell around at someone like that. Next time you see someone who looks like me, you should say hello instead of your brown! “

“…Sorry”

That's the gist of it. The only thing I really remember the kids saying is I'm sorry. And to me that's not the best outcome from this situation. Maybe I intimidated the boy because I'm a grown adult and he's the five or six-year-old kid. And, I didn't get the answer to the burning question on my mind. Much like a lot of things in Japan asking directly usually doesn't give you what you want.

Then again, it's quite a difficult question to answer. Much like the one I asked you.

What would you have done?