When two-year-old Sophia got to choose a doll as a reward for being ‘potty trained’, she knew exactly which one she wanted.
She spend twenty minutes looking at the dolls up and down the aisle when finally she found a doctor doll.
Her mum Brandi Benner told CNN that the reason Sophia picked that one was because “in her mind, she is already a doctor”.
“She loves giving checkups, and if you come in the house, she’ll tell you that’s the first thing you need,” Benner added.
The choice was simple. But when Sophia went to the cashier, the woman behind the counter was shocked.
“Are you sure this is the doll you want, honey?”
“Yes, please!” Sophia replied.
But the cashier said, “But she doesn’t look like you. We have lots of other dolls that look more like you.”
Sophia was way ahead of her though. “Yes, she does,” she said. “She’s a doctor like I’m a doctor. And I’m a pretty girl and she’s a pretty girl. See her pretty hair? And see her stethoscope?”
She just expertly schooled the cashier in racial bias, and the crazy part is, she probably didn’t even realise.
“This experience just confirmed my belief that we aren’t born with the idea that colour matters”, Sophia’s mother wrote on Instagram.
“Skin comes in different colours just like hair and eyes and every shade is beautiful… I just want to teach my kids love, and that’s included in my own actions.”