Wynter McMahan.
My wife Carla shares a story of when she was a little girl of about four years old. Her mother took her to a store in the big city of Gastonia. I’m assuming it was Kress’s Dime Store on Main Street. There Carla was permitted to select her first baby doll. I can see her now as she seriously studied every doll on display. This was an important decision, and knowing her as I do, it would have been taken with an abundance of caution. Finally, she selected a black baby doll. Later, cuddling her doll to her chest, she asked her older sisters to play baby doll with her. But they were too old and far too sophisticated to play a silly game that simply mimics taking care of a baby. Carla’s mother, Peg McGinnis, took her to a nearby farm where she could visit with her friend, Lily Mae Rhyne, and Carla could play baby dolls with Lil’s daughter, Linda. Carla and Linda still talk about the fun times they spent as young children playing with their dolls.
We hosted our extended family for Christmas lunch at our home last year. My brother, Greg, and his family were there, including son, Brian, with wife, Wynona, and Wynter, who is just three years old. Also there were my sister, Charlene, and her family, including son, Gary, with wife, Brandy, and two-year old daughter, AdiLou. Carla gave the children baby dolls, and we enjoyed watching them open their gifts and immediately start clutching the dolls to their chests.
I don’t know the story of how Brian and Wynona met and fell in love. Both are kind and caring. They are people with good hearts. I watched Gary and Brandy grow to love one another from their teens, like Carla and me. They were constant companions and best friends for many years before they were married. I am certain skin color had nothing to do with the forces that pulled these couples together. It was simply a matter of the heart.
Now there are two little girls. Both are beautiful. Both have enormous energy. Both are deeply loved by their families, immediate and extended. Wynter’s baby doll has dark skin like her. AdiLou’s baby doll has light skin. This means nothing to either child. They are just dolls, and they hug and kiss them, dress and undress them, and take care of them just as they are cared for by their parents and family.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Adilou Frazier.
In Wynter and AdiLou there is only light and love. They have been exposed only to parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins who love them. Their lives are a sea of love. There is no darkness. They kiss and cuddle their baby dolls and put them to bed as they are put to bed by parents who protect and care for them.
I don’t know how we build a world where love and acceptance replace hate and rejection. I don’t know how we can live in a world that is separate but equal, because it will more likely be separate but unequal. We are all on this planet together. The color of our skin says nothing about the content of our character or the depth of our spirit. I want to live in a world like the world in which Wynter and AdiLou now live.
I don’t know how we get there, but my passion is to start trying now so that when these two little girls are old enough to understand how others see them, it will be in a world where light has driven out darkness and love has driven out hate.
