I used to think that the way you got an itch, was that caterpillars were crawling around under your skin.

Anon

My mom's sister used to always pinch her when they were kids, just to annoy her. One day my mom started crying and told her mom, and her mom told her sister that if she pinched her she would get a tumor. My mom used to cry all the time because she thought she had a tumor because of this.

RJ

I used to believe if I was touched or rubbed up against by an
afro-american, the brown would rub off on me. Thanks to my embarrasingly RACIST parents for that fear. Thank GOD I outgrew that belief! No thanks to THEM! Egads.

Anon

I used to believe my father was a different race than I am. I am caucasian, and I'm very fair-skinned. My father works outdoors, so he has a year-round "farmer tan" on his arms and face. I thought he was LITERALLY HALF African American.

Amanda

When I was really young, perhaps 3 or 4, I believed that black people were called brown (people) instead because they looked more brown to me than black.

RJ

I used to think I was black because I went to the pool a lot and had a tan.

Erica Brandt

I used to believe that when you were born, the holes in your skin from chicken poxs were always holes from straws. I thought that my mom stuck a straw on my skin, sucked on it, then pulled it off, purposely to do that to make

Rainbow

The first time I seen a black person was when I was 9 on holiday in Spain. A black lady was sunbathing on the beach and I thought that she would be white underneath her bikini.

Anon

When I was little, i had this mole on my hand and i use to think it was a watch! I was like it's now 8:00 o'clock, when like it was 2:00!

-=-=-sounds-=-=-

I have a small brown birthmark on my foot and I didn't notice it until like I was 6 and it was the winter time and for some reason I took off my socks in the car and I seen it and I was like Mom I got a tan on my foot!

Tara

My dad was always a rascist and a bit of a pervert. So one day when I was being breastfed (I was 3), my dad told me how chocolate milk comes out of black womens' breasts. My mom laughed so hard and then told me it was true.

Not far after that, I was having trouble sleeping. I told my parents and they warned me that I would get dark circles under my eyes. And then they told me that black people get would get white circles under their eyes.

Anon

I used to think that when my mom said "Bare skin" she meant "hair as a bear" skin.

Smart Cookie

I was born in Asia, and until I came to the U.S., I thought black people were make-believe.

Anon

when I was little mybrothers told me i was someone eles kid because I had red hair and freckles and the rest of the family had dark hair and olives skin.
I used to ask my parents 20 questions till my dad went mental at my brothers 7&14 years older than me

karen parish

This is so sad: When I had just turned five, we went shopping and I saw the first African-American people I had ever seen. I thought that they had some sort of disease to look that way. I feared that if I came near them I would catch the disease.

Ra's Roomie

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

stephanie

I used to believe we are all different colors. Now I know we are just different shades of melatonin. So we are all ONE pigment, but some have more and others have less.

Kitty Lover

I have a mole (beautymark? whatever you call those things) on my face. When I was in second or third grade, I believed I could get rid of it by picking it off just like I did with scabs. I managed to pick it off and I thought I could have normal skin in that place just like all of the other kids. I was overjoyed! However, it grew back after a couple of weeks.

I didn't try to pick it off after that. : (

Anon

When I first saw a black person I screamed and thought that the baby was sun-burned. I was only 3.
when my mum was 6 she used to think black people were black because they weren't clean enough

Opps

As a young, näive white boy growing up in a small town in northeast Ohio, I used to think that when someone shook the hand of a Black/African-American/Colored/Negro person (this was back in the 60s, ok? -- edit if you must!), that the color would somehow come off their hand and stick on yours, though I was certain that it could be washed off.

Tim S.