The innocence of kids is a beautiful truth. As we grow older though, we quickly lose that innocence as well as the absence of inherited biases that begin to build over our reasoning.
As I watched The Help today at the movies, I noticed this in one of the characters. She was a young child cared for by one of the maids. Despite the fact that her mother and father obviously thought this maid was nothing more than scum, their daughter loved this woman who had shown such compassion and love for her all of her young life. This child had yet to be exposed to the conditioning society of the 1950's south would soon install in her.
Sometimes we should look at situations with a child's point of view. This child growing up in the 1950's did not judge a woman based on her color. She was too young to know what that meant at the time. Her innocence let her adore her caretaker simply because no other person cared for her as much.
While the issue may not be racism or discrimination, maybe we should look at certain personal relationships with the innocence of a child. Maybe we can peel back those layers added over us from society and our experiences and treat humans with the dignity we all deserve.
