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documentary and, 67 years later, little black girls still chose white dolls and thought black dolls were "the bad dolls".

I shall not attempt to answer the "Why" you want to ask, but my aim in writing this letter is to point you in the direction of what you should do to avoid being a victim of the devaluation of the black colour. I shall tell stories about my life, hoping you learn from me and pick lessons from it. I shall leave the history of the black race to you and history books... this I know you would one day learn.

My work is to teach you life skills that would help hold you head up. First, I have endeavoured to give you all African names, and I know that in your school years you will be subject to jokes, wrong pronunciations, and even taunts. I expect you might want to change them or shorten them sometime, but never worry about the name, it makes no difference as to who you become, but it lends strength to you as a person from a people. I say, be successful and the name will be pronounceable to all. "This I know for sure" look at the name OBarack Obama, it is suddenly pronounceable and, I bet, he can tell you a story or two about his life.

You might find that in the years to come, I might appear mean to you as I intend that you all speak, at least, 3 major languages and attain the highest form of education, as I have seen that the world is not kind to the uneducated and, even worse, an uneducated black man or woman. Character, I shall instil, for therein the honour lies. All this I shall do by insisting on little play time as against reading time.

As a black man or woman, please expect it, you will meet people who will treat you with the uttermost disrespect and disregard and inside you will know, without any doubt, that it is because you are black. You will someday look at everything and wonder when it will end, and some days will be better than others, but dark days will come. Remember the day we had a flat tire on our way back from the daycare and we went into the garage near home to fix it? Remember I was crying when I came back into the car and you heard me screaming at a man? Well that man flung my credit card at me because I asked him why he was charging $40 dollars to change a tire.

So, here is lesson 1; Never scream. This is an important lesson of life. Do not do it, you lose your strength, energy and power, and you make the aggressor the victim. When you scream, you lose your ability to confront the racist, in words. More than anything, he needs

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