"Dislikes…..Africa”

We were playing a game. Each person receives a piece of paper with a little picture and a blank space for Name, Age, Job, Likes, Dislikes, and Hobbies. The objective? To increase vocabulary and creating sentences. I envisioned this exercise to be a bit more interesting because at least the children get to use their imaginations.

The responses started out generic enough. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) the children didn’t really understand that they were supposed to use their imagination for this exercise and I found myself listening to them re-introduce themselves. I decided to just take it in stride and corrected the mistakes as we went along. Eventually it was time for one of the girls to share what she had written. Nothing about this child grabbed my attention, she was a generic Spanish child, if there ever was such a thing. At this point, I can’t even remember her name….maybe Mari? No, she wasn’t particularly special. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have remembered her at all if she didn’t read what she wrote that day.

She read her name, her age, struggled to name a job in English and had no problem listing her likes. I’ll admit, I was mostly tuned out when she got to her dislikes. It was almost time for me to leave and I was thinking of what to make for lunch.

“Deeslikes…..Africa”

*Insert record scratching here*

My head snapped up and my screw face was on and ready. Wait…..what?! I looked over at the head teacher and he had an embarrassed look on his face. The other students all turned and looked at her. There was silence.

Then came the barrage of questions.

Head Teacher: Dislikes Africa. Why do you say that?

Guilty girl who dislikes Africa: *shrugs shoulders*

Me: Wait…what?

Another child: You don’t like Africa? Why?

Moroccan child: No le gusta Africa? (speaks to friend while glaring at the guilty girl) 

Head Teacher: Why don’t you like Africa? Have you ever been there before?

Another child: Por la pobreza. Hay mucha pobreza. (Because of the poverty, there is a lot of poverty)

Moroccan child: Si ella no le gusta Africa, no me gusta Europa. (If she doesn’t like Africa, I don’t like Europe)

Head Professor: How can you dislike a whole country?

At this point, I was ready to slap both girl AND professor, because really, Africa is a country!? So I turned to this child and I said, “How can you dislike a whole continent? Especially when you’ve never been there before?” She looked back at me with the most confused look on her face and I had to pull myself back. I was in “it’s-time-to-educate-the-ignorant-one-or-slap-someone-whichever-feels-most-appropriate” mode and this child is still struggling to speak in complete sentences in English. She didn't have answers for us. In fact, she had the nerve to be indignant. I could see the thoughts moving through her mind. “I grace these people with my perfect English and they have the nerve to get riled up and start questioning me. This will be the last time I decide to help them out and participate!”

*sigh*

I’m not surprised at the racism. I know Spain has its own issues with race, as does every other place, but it’s the age of the child that got to me. Her age. Her inability to explain why exactly she hates Africa. Her blindness as to why that particular thought process is wrong. Wrong and dangerous.

I tire of trying to educate every ignorant person that crosses my path. What am I supposed to do?