Does This Look Like the Face of a Racist?

So, at the park last week, Jackson, naturally, wanted to play with the most out-of-control rugrat in the whole park. I mean this boy was "that kid", you know the one, there's one of them at every park - the one with snot running down his lip, persistently coughing in every kid's face, dirt all over, an 8-year old sister supposedly keeping track of him, and no adult caregiver in sight.

But, Jackson was attracted to him because he was older (maybe 3 years old), and doing all sorts of things that look attractive to Jackson - climbing the big boy equipment, running around, jumping on this and that - you get the picture. So, Jackson's following his lead and trying to emulate this boy, when the boy decides that he's had enough and runs off with his sister, leaving Jackson high and dry on top of the playground structure.

Desperate to keep his new best friend, Jackson yelled: "Stop boy! Come back boy! Come back!"

Not getting any response from the boy, Jackson then started yelling at the top of his lungs: "Come back brown boy! Play over here brown boy!"

Is it wrong that I was both laughing and briefly mortified? I'm sure Jackson had no malicious intent in labeling the boy as "brown boy"....I mean, Jackson is only 2 years old, and the boy was, in fact, brown. But Jackson obviously hasn't learned the rules of decency and political correctness. So I'm laughing because it's funny to watch him call after the boy in complete desperation and trying to get his attention by calling out the only two things he knew about the boy - that he was a boy and that he was brown. I was just a bit mortified though because the park patrons were of various races and I didn't know if all of these other people understood why Jackson was shouting after the "brown boy" will all of his might. Did they think that I had taught him to call people out by their skin color?

Of course, in the end, I should not have been surprised when no one seemed to notice - after all, half of the parents barely pay attention to their own kid(s), let alone what the other kids are doing/saying at the park. I didn't see anyone snickering or whispering or giving Jackson or I dirty looks because I don't think anyone really heard Jackson....least of all the boy that he was trying to get to come back.

As impressed as I am with Jackson's thought process and ability to try to be more specific when the boy would not first answer to just "boy", I am actually equally impressed that Jackson got the "boy" part right. I readily identified the boy as a boy, but he did have long dreadlocks that were pulled back into a ponytail, so it would have been very easy for Jackson to mislabel him as a girl. I'm pretty sure that would have made the whole incident worse, so thank God for small favors.