Verbatim snippet from today’s lunch with my fifth-grade-son and his friends.
The name “Barack Obama” comes up randomly in a conversation that had been, thus far, mostly about football teams.
Boy 1: “I don’t like Barack Obama.”
Boy 2, who is (incidentally) African American: “Why? Because he’s black?”
Boy 1: “No. Do you want to know why?”
(No one responds. This does not deter Boy 1.)
Boy 1: “My mom has a small business. And because of Barack Obama…”
Boy 2, grinning, interrupts: “I follow Obama on Twitter.”
Boy 1, now distracted, “I follow Snape! I wrote to him once but he didn’t write back.”
Me, sotto voce, to my son: “Does he know Snape isn’t a real person?”
Son, for some reason looking strangely relieved, shrugs.