Race Revealed

A couple of months ago, a patient asked me quite seriously, "Are you white?" 

 

 

(this is me)

 

When I said that yes, I am, he gave me a very puzzled/angry look of disbelief. Don't judge him. I think this can all be explained by what a little girl at the pool told me several years ago.

 

I have a birthmark on my arm, roughly the shape of Illinois. 

 

 

Children always say in wide-eyed horror, "Is that a scab? What happened to you?! Did you fall down?" They are often a little stumped by what a birthmark is, but are usually satisfied when I tell them "It's just a big mole that I've had since I was born."

One little girl at the pool where I worked as a lifeguard was not so easily convinced. She would play in the water for a while, then come over and ask me another question. "Does it hurt? Has it been there since always? Did it always be the same size? How old are you? Do you have another one?" 

 

Finally, she came to me with a satisfied expression of knowing and said confidently, "I know what happened to you. You were born a black baby. As you got older and grew, it just shrank and shrank and shrank, and now it's this size. When you're a mom it's going to be like the size of a Skittle and when you're a grandma it will be just a little freckle."

 

Mystery solved.