i used to believe that if you were a white child you would grow up to be black and if you were a black child you would grow up to be white. thanks michael jackson.....

andrea

I used to believe that you got freckles by squeezing your skin really hard, so I used to pinch my cheeks and squeeze my arms, thinking that freckles would appear.

Karen S.

when i was 6 years old iused to believe that when you go near a person who is HIV you do not need to go near him or her because you will also get the deasese.

joe hams

I ticked off these older kids on the bus one day when I was little (and quite a punk). They had freckles, and told me if they touched me, I'd "catch" freckles too (as though it were some sort of disease). Being young and stupid, I was horrified. I went home in tears and would run away from anyone with freckles.

I believed them until third grade. Sad.

Lindsay

I used to think that black people were just white people with a really dark tan.

stephanie

On our way to church every sunday morning my grandmother and I would drive through a black neighborhood. One day I asked her when I would be able to play at that park because it looked really cool. She politely told me that the park was for the black people that lived in the town and because I wasn't black that I couldn't play there. (My grandmother was not a racist, nor am I, but back then that's how it was). I thought about it and then asked my grandma, "Well, when I grow up and am black THEN can I play in it?"

Jennifer

I used to believe that black people were white people dipped in Chocolate. That's what my dad told me...

Steve

When I was little, grown-ups always said to wash your hands with hot water, not cold, because it kills the germs better. So I imagined little red circles with arms, legs, and a face as the germs. I imagined that when you wash with cold water, it just drips into your hands and the germs shiver, but don't go away. But when you wash with hot, a big wave goes inside your hands and the germs scream and run away.

Anonymous

When I was 5, my older sister (who was 15) was wearing flesh colored nylons. Knowing how niave I was, she told me that she had something to show me. She then proceeded to pull on her nylons. I was so horrified by this and for years believed my sister had a stretchy skin disease!

Payton's Mama

There used to be an ad on the tv for after shave and it showed a man who was shaving and his face was on fire. I thought this looked cool and watched my dad shave every single morning waiting to see the fire. I couldnt understand how he never had fire on his face even though he didnt use after shave. I believed this until I was about 8 or 9.

Anon

When I was little, I got sunburned and my skin started to peel, and I thought I was turning into a snake and I was sheading my skin.

Kate

When I was in pre-k I thought if I thouched a black person I would turn black, so I was always scared to death to hold there hand in games or something, and when I did, I'd wash my hands.

Kate

I was the only Native American in my whole school and the other children constantly call me names like Squaw or Darkie. When I cried to my mom one night, she told me that in the beginning the Creator decided he wanted people in the world so he broke sticks and put them in the oven, the first batch of sticks he took out where white people and he said, "you are too undone, I'll put you over there." and he put them in Europe. The second bunch he took out, he said, "you are too dark, I'll put you over there." and he placed them in Africa. The last batch he said, "you people are just right, you can stay right here." She then said some of the white and black sticks eventually made their way to our part of the world. For some reason, I felt better and it didn't bother me as much when the white sticks called me darkie because according to the Creator, I was just right.

Wickwire

when i was young i thot if u got a mole u would turn to 1. win i saw my mole on my shoulder i was terifyed.i got scared also because my hair was still growing from win i gotit cut, i thot it was xtra hair gowing!

:( poor misledbabi

When I was younger my dad used to tell me as a joke (he's not racist at all) that black people had poo poo smeared across their face and thats why they were black. One day when I was about 6 an electrician came over to our house to fix something and I shouted out 'LOOK DADDY THAT MAN HAS POO POO ON HIS FACE!' I still can't get over that to this day.

Jake

It's kind of funny, because I used to believe that if you put too much water on your face, like on your chin, you would grow a beard or hair on your chin, so I always tried not to get my chin wet and stare in the mirror to make sure I wasn't growing any hair on my chin.

LiLTiger

i was in ballet and i got the two words tootoo and tatoo mixed up. When my dad explaned what a tatoo was i envisioned a tootoo worn by ballerinas as being held there by needles.

mannea

I had never heard the term "colored" used to describe a person until I ran across a reference to "a little colored girl" in a children's book I was reading when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I assumed it meant she was rainbow-colored - and I thought "How cool! There are people that are all different colors?!"

Barbara Wills