Linda G Hill One Liner Wednesday Prompt: One-Liner Wednesday, July 1st

“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I remember one time when I was a kid, me and some of my neighborhood friends were sitting in the front yard with my dog.

He didn’t bark a lot, or very often but this time he did when about a dozen ‘big kids ‘ walked by. He jumped up from where he had been sitting and let them have it.

I couldn’t say why, but I’m guessing it was because there was so many of them and so few of us and he was feeling protective.

When the kids passed our house, my next door neighbor, who had never said a word to me before walked up into our yard, said hello and leaned over and started to pet my dog.

” You know,” he said ” my dog doesn’t like Black people either. Good boy. Good dog.” He ruffled his ears. ” Yep. Some dogs just don’t like black people.”

I put my hand on Sham’s head. ” He’s not supposed to bark like that. ” was all I could think to say.

My neighbor smiled down at me and grinned and when he did my dog yanked his head out from under my hand, he took it gently into his mouth and pulled me back.

I couldn’t tell you to this day if there was black kid in that crowd, there was so many of them and I wasn’t really paying attention. But that’s not the point.

The point is, my obviously racist neighbor who had never said a word to me before that day would never say another one for the eight years he lived next to us.

It was a short conversation and it’s made me wonder to this day- what would provoke an adult to tell a ten year old child – the only words he would ever speak to her- such an ugly, ignorant thing?