No One Is Born Racist

In August 2010, photographer Sean Bonner took a photo of his wife, Tara Tiger Brown, on Paris Métro. The photo has since become a meme, viewed and commented on by millions of people. Tara found out after she received dozens of pings from friends sending her links to a photo with the tagline “No one is born racist” and asking if it’s her.

The comments to the meme across platforms were — and still are — mixed. Some love the photo and some think that she’s a horrible mother, hateful racist, etc. But what she likes about the photo is that the moment captured is between her son and their fellow passenger on the Paris Metro, and she’s just in the background.

“I have to say that in all the things I ever wished for in life, becoming a meme seen by more than a million people was not one of them. That being said, if it helps to spread a positive message then I’m all for it. Except of course when someone said I have a duck-face — thanks to the person who defended me and said I was probably in mid-sentence.”

Over the years, Sean and Tara have always hoped to find that gentleman for a coffee, since he had been part of they lives for years and they didn’t even know his name. In the fall of 2019, thanks to the Internet, they finally did it, and they traveled again to Paris to meet him. The moral of the story is simple.

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