Stranger Anxiety

I'm OK around babies, but toddlers who see me start to cry. By that age, kids know how a person is supposed to look and I don't match their idea of human being. An African American colleague tells me kids here are scared of him, too. In years gone by, the rural Chinese thought people with my color skin were ghosts.

In our species, the fear of those who look different begins early. Some of us never get over it.