She thinks her kid is scared of people with beards, too

Imagine parents complaining about the new black host of a children's television show because their children might be afraid of her. Imagine having the trouble those parents will have if their children see that black person and start asking questions about "blackness," forcing the parents to sit down and have a conversation about "blackness" with them.

I've used what I hope is an unsettling scenario to illustrate a point. (And let me be clear here that I feel uncomfortable casting black people as Other, even if it is merely as an illustration.) Most people who read the above paragraph would feel indignation or outrage at such an attitude toward black people. They would recognize it as racist and reprehensible. Yet many of those people would not feel that indignation when the attitude is directed toward a disabled person.

This is exactly what has happened to the new, one-armed host of a British television show. One viewer wrote that she didn't want her child to see this host because she thought the stump would give her daughter "sleep problems." I wonder how this one-armed television host feels knowing she is so frightening.

It is, in fact, the adult who has the problem. Children tend to be at ease, and ask open, non-judging questions. They haven't been conditioned yet to think there's something wrong with or frightening about disabled people. I feel sad that people can be as prejudiced as the mother quoted above, and I'm sad that they are raising their children to be prejudiced, too.

The thing that really irks me is that disability is still seen as something so different. Even the disabled TV host says, "I'd never comment on anyone's parenting or the time for them to have a discussion with their child about disabilities [...]. It's a totally personal thing and people have to do it when they feel comfortable to do it." Why exactly is disability something that needs to be talked about. Do people have talks with their kids about hair color? "You see, Jimmy, there are some people who are ginger..." I long for a day when disability is seen as a physical difference of no more social consequence than red hair, or at the very least, when we are not be treated as something to be afraid of.