The first grade teacher announced a spelling competition one warm spring afternoon. “Anyone who spells a word correctly gets to go home early. Mary, what did you do at lunchtime?” Mary replied, “I played in the sandbox, teacher.”
“Okay. Mary. Spell ‘box.'” Mary smiled. “B-o-x. Box.” “Very good, you may go home. Tommy, what did you do at lunch?”
“I played with the toy cars.” “Tommy, spell ‘car.'” “C-a-r. Car.” “Very good, Tommy, you may go home, too. Johnny, why are you crying?”
A sniffling Johnny replied, “At lunch, Mary and Tommy wouldn’t play with me because I’m black.” The teacher frowned. “Oh, Johnny. That’s terrible. That’s called ‘racial prejudice!’ Johnny, spell ‘racial prejudice!'”