Aunt stops ice cream date with nephew and niece after they called her a racist nickname

Few experiences hurt more than being ridiculed for one's identity. Yet, many endure daily ridicule over their race and skin tone. Unfortunately, u/Forward-Plant-1056 was one of them. The saddest part was that the mocking came from a place that should have been her haven, her own family. Because her skin is considerably darker than the rest of her family, they gave her the humiliating nickname: "Little Coal." No grown, she has chosen to take a stand for herself. When her cousin's kids repeated the nickname in front of her, she stopped their ice cream date and returned home, causing quite a stir in her family.

The 19-year-old woman began the post by sharing why she looks different from the rest of her family. Her mother is indigenous/black, while her father is a mix of Italian and German ancestry. The daughter looks more like her mother and is "considerably darker" than her paternal side of the family. This difference has always been picked on and laughed at. They gave her a nickname "that can be translated as 'Little Coal.'" This nickname stuck with her and she wrote how she ended up associating "it with bad memories."

Though hurt by the nickname, she continues to have a relationship with the cousins. One day, she took her niece and nephew, 8 and 6, respectively, to an ice cream date. To her shock, they also began calling her the same nickname. "I asked them to please not call me that because it made me very sad," she wrote. "But they continued calling me it." She gave them repeated warnings, but they would not give in. Not willing to get insulted anymore, she contacted her cousin "to notify her that something had come up and I couldn't take the kids to ice cream anymore." The kids did not think their aunt was serious, but when she left them at their house, they understood this was no joke. Understanding they had hurt their aunt, they profusely apologized, but the aunt refused to listen.

The cousin got in touch with her and was surprised by her behavior. She called the woman "immature" and criticized her for making the kids cry due to a stupid nickname. The cousin added that this was not a healthy way to handle this situation because "kids this age don't understand consequence, so me canceling was just an a**hole move since they wouldn't understand it was because they were calling me the nickname." The woman felt overwhelmed by all this blame just because she wanted to remove herself from a hurtful scenario. Therefore, she came on Reddit for a third-party view.

The comment section was on the woman's side and supported her for putting herself first. u/Venusbellarosa wrote that the kids needed to have this lesson, "Nta they are 6 and 8 they are old enough to understand. Also wonder if your family calls you that behind your back. For the kids to be parroting that around." u/mc87 pointed out how offensive the nickname is and commented, "NTA, that seems pretty racist actually. It's wild that your cousin would teach her kids that name. She probably doesn't want to own up to the fact that she and everyone else who calls you this has been a racist AH this whole time. Shocker. They're also 6 and 8, so they can understand not to do something after an adult asks."

Editor's note: This article was originally published on December 29, 2023. It has since been updated.