Growing up in Sweden in the 1960's I wasn't exposed to a lot of foreign influence and didn't quite understand racial differences. Someone had told me that "negroes" (the proper term used in Sweden for black people) originated in Africa. So for me, this became a nationality rather than a race. I refused to see black people from any other continent as black. You could only be black if you came from Africa. My parents had also given my a black doll (Ada, my favorite) and it never occured to me that she was of a different race than my friends dolls. I just thought she was prettier then theirs because she had more colour and beautiful brown eyes.
A childhood belief about nationalities
others believed things like this
- I thought black people were black because they drank chocolate milk. — Shelby
- When i was a child, i used to believe that when people ate black beans, they became black— Mar'ia Elena
- I used to believe that black people were black because they had so many frecles that they merged together.Anon
- When I was little I used to believe that black people saw in black and white. — Chelsea
- i used to think that black people had black skeleatons.Anon
- I thought that old movies were black and white because the world was black and white then. — K