"That's Not Fair!"

My SnapDragon is now 7 years old.  I'll probably refer to him as my 6 year old for a few more years, but he is 7.  He behaves like any other 7 year old--bringing up deep philosophical conversations in the car completely ignoring that it is really hard to hear him from the back of the minivan over Sunflower's singing.  I think the conversation went like this:

SnapDragon:  Addy* was treated badly when she was a slave.  Not all slaves were treated badly.

Me: That's true, but it is wrong to own a person no matter how you treat them.

SnapDragon:  I know.  Martin Luther King stopped that thing where white people couldn't go to school with black people.  He made it so that didn't happen any more.

Me: Technically that is true but--

SnapDragon: That isn't fair.  I have lots of friends who have blacker skin and I wouldn't get them as friends if they didn't come to my school. (His school is 47% Caucasian.)

Me: It isn't fair.  It was called segregation.  It is an example of white privilege which means because we are part of the majority race** we have the power and the money. (Remember I'm talking to a 6 7 year old and I never heard the term myself before this year.)

SnapDragon:  I wouldn't mind the money.  Then I would buy guns and fight.  No.  I wouldn't fight.  I would hold up little square signs that said, "It is not fair!  Stop it!"

That is my sweet little militant.  Learning about the Civil War at the same time as the Civil Rights Movement can be a little confusing.  What a great way to focus his middle child "everything has to be fair" syndrome.

* Addy is an American Girl Doll/Character
**I felt really odd saying the word race in this context.  Maybe I've read too much science fiction where race does mean another species but it felt very separating.  Usually I can avoid using the word race and just say Caucasian or Asian but defining white privilege wouldn't have made sense without the word race.