when i was little i was a very freckly kid and i got told that everytime i went outside that the sun would kiss me and thats what i thought freckles were.

sumpey, jumpar

When I was little, I went to a fast food restaurant and I had nuggets with sweet & sour sauce and I got alot of the sauce on my hands. After I wiped my hands in the napkins I looked at them, and for the first time I saw my life-lines and I thought that the sauce had made brown lines in my hands that may never come off.

Anon

I used to believe that black people were just white people that had got really good, all over tans.

This was further reinforced when I saw that the palms of black people's hands and feet were white, which obviously happened because when they tanned they kept their hands flat.

GianPiero

When I was little about 4 or 5 my older sister told me that when I painted my nails and got nailpolish on my skin my skin would turn the same color as the nailpolish and peel off like a banana. Needless to say I didn't paint my nails for a looong time :)

switchwanabee

When my sister was really young, before I was born even( I think ) She had seen the show "the cosby's" and that had been the only place where she had seen dark skin. So one day while at the mall with my mom, a few people with black skin walked by and she yells "look mom! cosby's!"

My sisters sister.

When I was a kid I believed that black peoples butts were light skinned like the bottom of their hands and feet. I figured out the truth in 6th grade camp when I bunked in the den of the predominatly black school we went to camp with. For some reason those guys liked to moon eachother alot.

some dude

My family had these two huge white cats with this thick, long fur when I was really little. They were actually brothers from the same litter (named Bo & Luke...Dukes of Hazzard?) One day I parted one of the cat's hair and saw white skin. I checked the other cat's skin and I could swear that I saw dark brown skin (probably dirt or a freckle). Since they were brothers with different colored skin- I was convinced that my caucasian pregnant mom was going to give me a black little bro or sis.

Mixie

I used to think that when lighter people got a tan they went darker and when darker people got a tan they went lighter.

Anon

You know how your skin peels off when you've had a sunburn or when you get a blister or anything like that? Well I believed that if you peeled the skin enough, you would eventually peel through to the bone.

Anon

My mum used to tell me that when ever a fly would land on me it would poop. She said that's where my moles/freckles came from.

Teresa Le

I was taken on a London bus in the 1950's when the government was encouraging people from overseas to come to fill certain jobs. Seeing something I had never seen before - a lady with black skin on the bus - I screamed loudly and pointed to my mothers embarrasment (and the lady's probably) "Mummy Mummy that lady needs to go to hospital!!"

lucidlupin

I thought that a "birth mark" was the first place on your body that was born.

My birthmark is on the back of my head but my older sister's is on the inside of her knee and I could never figure out how THAT part of her could come out of my mom first.

julia

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

I used to believe that if white people would turn brown in the sun then brown people would turn white.

Anon

when i was 4 or so i used to think that whenever my mamaw would pull on her panty hose it was her actual skin and i would start screamin my head off!!!

pantyhose girl

I used to believe that black people were black because there's too much sun in Africa. I watched a Discovery Channel program on climate and they talked about how much hotter Africa is than the United States, so I figured everybody black, having roots in Africa, was sunburned, and it even passed down to their children. Whenever my mom pestered me about how much I needed sunblock at the beach, I didn't worry that much because I would just become a black person! When my mom kept insisting I wear sunblock, that made me think that my mom didn't like black people, or at least didn't want me to be black. I pretty much held this belief until my mom explained that the sun can give you cancer, and THEN I thought all black people had cancer! She eventually learned everything I believed and set everything straight. Thank goodness.

bear claw bill

when i was little i thought that a piercing gun used to pierce ears was a regular gun with an earring in it and some one would stand back and shot it into our ear

Anon

When I was a kid, I used to believe there were only 2 races: black people and white people. Because I knew I wasn't white, I thought I was black. I'm actually Persian.

Amir Talai

one day when i was little i saw a black kid and i asked my mom why some people are black and she said thats the color god painted them.i then thoght that black people were origanaly white but then they went to church an god painted them black with a paint brush.

mr. i

I thought cold sores, were really called cole slaw!!

kathryn