5-year-old BFFs get same haircut so they'll no longer have any differences
During a time when the world is divided on so many issues, two five-year-old boys are here to remind us the beauty of unity.
Two best friends from Louisville, Kentucky, Reddy, who's black, and Jax, who's white, aren't letting their different skin colors get in the way of their love for one another.
In fact, they don't recognize skin color as a dividing characteristic at all.
On Feb. 24, Jax's mother, Lydia Rosebush, posted a photograph to her Facebook account of the two inseparable youngsters at their Christmas program, along with a touching tale of her son's desire to eliminate the only difference between him and his black best friend: his long hair.
"This morning Jax and I were discussing his wild hair," Rosebush wrote. "I told him that he needed a haircut this weekend. He said that he wanted his head shaved really short so he could look like his friend Reddy."
According to Rosebush, her son's lighthearted request was made with the intention of fooling people at his school. "He said he couldn't wait to go to school on Monday with his hair like Reddy's so that his teacher wouldn't be able to tell them apart," she explained.
"I'm sure you all see the resemblance," Rosebush said in regards to her son and Reddy. "If this isn't proof that hate and prejudice is something that is taught I don't know what is. The only difference Jax sees in the two of them is their hair."
Jax's touching request became a reality and Louisville news station, WAVE 3, accompanied him to his haircut to capture the magic on camera. In the video, the Jax and Reddy pal around during the haircut, and Reddy can be heard explaining "Jax's me ... and I'm Jax."
Jax's mom told the news outlet that when she initially made the post she never anticipated the reaction would be so widespread. "It just struck me as funny that Jax doesn't even notice that Reddy is a different color. When he describes Reddy he never mentions it. I thought with all the hate in the world today, we could use this lesson from an almost 5-year-old," she said.
Reddy's father Kevin Weldon agrees that the boys' friendship is a much-needed inspiration. "There's an innocence children have that sometimes we lose," he told WAVE 3. "If we could get some of that back, I think it would be amazing."
According to Rosebush, when the boys returned to school on Wednesday, their teacher played along with the adorable trick and acted as though she couldn't tell the two apart.
Who would have thought that two five-year-olds would set a new standard for #FriendshipGoals?
Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.
