Thanks to Martin Luther King Jr., my daughter might be able to hunt zombies with her wife one day

ZOEY: Is tomorrow the weekend?

ME: Nope, but there’s no school because it’s a holiday.

ZOEY: Yay!

ME: Do you remember what holiday it is?

ZOEY: Yes. It’s that king’s day.

ME: He’s not really a king. His last name is King.

ZOEY: Right Arthur Lunar King.

ME: Martin Luther King.

ZOEY: That’s what I said.

ME: Do you know why we celebrate him?

ZOEY: Because he made a very important announcement that we are supposed to treat brown people like everyone else.

ME: Close. He said that ALL people are supposed to be treated well. Black people, white people, ALL people.

ZOEY: What else?

ME: Okay, did you know that a long time ago they made black people ride in the back of the bus? They weren’t allowed to ride in the front.

ZOEY: What?!

ME: Yup. And they used to have bathrooms for white people and separate bathrooms for black people, and sometimes they didn’t even get a bathroom.

ZOEY: WHAT??!!!! So they had to pee-pee OUTSIDE?!!

ME: Or hold it.

ZOEY: That’s not good.

ME: No. But Martin Luther King Junior made people think differently and helped change these things.

ZOEY: Like what else?

ME: Like a long time ago, black kids and white kids couldn’t even go to the same schools.

ZOEY: And did white kids have more toys?

ME: Sure.

ZOEY: And did the black kids get more homework?

ME: Ummm, I don’t think so.

ZOEY: But it’s all better now.

ME: It’s much better now. But not all better. There are still a lot of problems.

ZOEY: Like what?

ME: Like people fighting about color.

ZOEY: What else?

ME: It’s not just about the color of your skin. Like did you know that women still get paid less than men?

ZOEY: WHAAAATTTT?!!

ME: Yes. And some states don’t let gay people get married like everyone else.

ZOEY: What’s gay?

ME: Like when a man loves a man or a woman loves a woman.

ZOEY: Oh yeah. Like I love Lila.

ME: Kind of.

ZOEY: I’m going to marry her one day.

ME: If you decide to when you’re older.

ZOEY: And we’re going to play zombie hunt all the time.

ME: Uh-huh. Let’s talk more about Martin Luther King.

ZOEY: And we’re going to make zombie traps everywhere and put cheese in them because zombies like cheese.

ME: Did you-

ZOEY: And our kids are going to be really good zombie hunters and they’re going to kill them.

ME: So-

ZOEY: Did you know that zombies are actually really small like this big? (She held her fingers apart like a centimeter)

ME: No, I didn’t.

And that was that. I taught her about Martin Luther King Junior and she taught me about zombie hunting. Awesome.