Javier Morillo

Robinson's only cultural reference for Puerto Ricans was most likely West Side Story.

Like I must have looked to her like this little Latin tough, like in her head, she's thinking, boy, boy, crazy boy.

And I got in a lot of trouble in kindergarten, which sounds weird, because who gets in trouble in kindergarten?

But Ms.

Robinson called Mommy in for a parent-teacher conference early in the school year to let her know that her son was willful, disobedient, and did not know how to pronounce his own name.

Mommy was alarmed.

Ms.

Robinson says, I call him.

I say, Javier, listen to me.

Javier, come here.

And he just ignores me.

Now, I had been fighting with her for a while, so when my mother explained to Ms.

Robinson that she had just lost an epic battle with a five-year-old, my worldview changed.

Mommy and I laughed all the way home, and I learned a very important lesson that day.

Adults are stupid.

I think now of all the times I got in trouble in kindergarten, I wonder if Ms.

Robinson was a little bit racist.

But after that parent-teacher conference, I was nobody's victim.

She might scold me, and I would just look at her with pity.

I was thinking, yeah, we already established that you are dumb.