share your little boy/girl story.....

I integrated my Catholic school at age six and was bullied quite a bit. But one situation turned out differently. One boy always went out of his way to bug me, would take away the tetherball if I was playing, hide my books, and began chasing me home.

I ran down the main street, but once I got past [b]his[/b] cross street, I was home free; he’d go no further. He started watching for me in the morning and when I passed by that street en route to school, I’d hear, "[b]Hey !"[/b] and start running. It became a ritual, and he never said much once we got to school. I wasn’t afraid of him, somehow.

One morning, when I passed by his street and he approached, he was with his brother.
He said, "Hey !" and I ran.
Then his brother called me the "N" word.
I stopped running, heard noises and looked back.
They were fighting.

I walked on to school.
Later, looking disheveled, he came up to me.
"Listen, we don’t hate you because you’re [b]colored[/b].
We hate you because you’re a [b]girl[/b]."

Not knowing what to say, I nodded and walked on. But the chases stopped.

I saw him throughout the rest of my school days; we would greet each other, and by high school we were actually friends.

He is now a well-respected pediatrician in Belmont. 👨🏻‍⚕️