My son hated to get dirty when he was little. When he was about 16 months old we went to the grocery store, and passed a black lady who stopped to speak with me and my son...when she spoke to him and reached out her hand to him, he looked at me and asked before taking her hand "dirty?". We laughed so hard we had to sit down.

Anon

I used to believe that black people were made of chocolate.

The only black person I knew at the time, and until I was five years old, took care of me when my parents were at work. I thought she was the only black person that existed and that she was one of my mothers.

The first time I met another black woman I said, "I have a chocolate mom like you."

Dr. Ira Martel

I know a friend in college who believed that if she sat on a pillow, she would get pimples on her rear.

L.J. in NY

i grew up in a small suburban town with mostly white people. in preschool i was obsessed with whoopie goldberg and a friend in my class had a black nanny. i didnt know any black people and thought she was just so lucky to have whoopie goldberg as a nanny.

Anon

I used to believe that since my Mom has light-colored skin, and my Dad has dark-colored skin that I must have started out light-colored like my Mom because we are both females, and that I must have played outside in the mud too long and that's why I was darker-skinned than my siblings. Of course, it didn't occur to me that my brothers weren't darker than I was, even though they were males.

Jenn

When I was in kindergarten, thought that African-American people were colored the way they were because they had been playing in the dirt. I was afraid to play with them because I thought I would get dirty too!

Usagi-chan

When I was little, I believed I would grow warts if I touched the eye of a fish and the wart would smell "fishy" for the rest of my life!

ArmWild39

I used to beleive that itching was caused by tiny little people running around on my skin. Now I find it hard to believe this until until I was about 10 years old.

Short Stuf

For a surprisingly long time I believed that the criss-cross web of lines on the back of my hand were very small threads, and that if I snagged one of the threads the back of my hand would unravel.

The first thing I did if I ever cut the back of my hand was check the wound to see if there was any thread damage lest unrecoverable unraveling occur...

Ric

me my cousin and my brother used t picked n my younger girl cousin because she had loads of freckels and my auntie used to shout at us and say to her that they were fairy kisses and that only special people got them. and she still beliefs itow and shes 13

linzi

When I was a little girl we had a dark skinned girl in our school who was unbelievably cool. I really admired her and wanted to be like here. I would always pray every night and ask God if he could make me more like her. When that summer I got a lot of freckles I went into this happy tantrum thinking I was turning into my heroin...

N.W.,the Netherlands

I used to believe that eating chocolates will make the skin become brown.

Godzilla

Ok , I wasnt wure where to put this but, when i was young mabey 5 or 6 i used to think that some african american people would grow up and turn white.

ashamed to say

I used to believe that Tan people Counldn't get cold.

becca

I use to believe that black people were just people who go to the beach alot.

Xambonie

I grew up very sheltered. I argured for over a year with my girlfriend about the coloring of African Americans bottoms. I told her that I had proof that they were white. The Coppertone Ads on Billboards proved it. One day while at our local park a young gal was there and we asked her. She showed us her butt to prove that I was a kook. To this day, I can't believe that I not only believed this, but that I had the gall to ask.

Donna

my sister in her childish innocence studied an african american man waiting behind my mother in line at the local market near our house. she couldn't have been more than 5 or so squirming in her seat in the shopping cart when she couldn't wait any longer. she asked the man "when you take a bath how do you know when you're clean?" making the connection that he couldn't see dirt against his dark skin like she could. the man just laughed at her honesty and said "when the water turns brown i know i'm clean" while my mom turned ten shades of red in embarrassment.

jirkstore

When I was probably 4 or so my stepdad's younger adopted brother told me that if I touched a black person that the color would rub off on me. This made me terrified and I didn't want to touch anyone with darker skin than mine. He even supported this lie by saying that's why black people have light colored palms, they rubbed all the color off. It wasn't until I was almost in High School before I finally realized this was all a lie!!

Anon

I used to think that the small, brown flecks that appear on random places of the skin would eventually get bigger and bigger until I was completely brown.

J

When I was little, I asked my mother why some people were dark brown while I was sort of pink. She said it was because they had something in their skin (like what makes us tan) that made them darker. I was very surprised in the my school's locker room to find that my classmates were brown all over and not sporting a dramatic tan line.

Laurie