“I knew I wanted each of my students to mix their own color, but I wanted it to carry greater significance. I wanted them to mix colors to discover the rainbow inside of their beautiful skin,” she says. This year, she wanted to jump right into the project and set a precedent from the start.
“The tendency, when I was growing up, was for teachers to try to pretend that they did not see color,” Johnson says “My culture, my language, my religion, and even the texture of my hair are all inextricably linked to the color of my skin. To erase it is to erase me.” She also added: “My favorite was the little boy who said, ‘I look like chocolate cake!’”

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