Christ is right: if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must possess the spiritual beauty, purity and innocence of children. Christ was talking about children like the ones I recently encountered at the Hodding Carter YMCA in Greenville, Mississippi.

In this regard, I recently learned a good and heart-warming lesson about race and human relations while playing basketball at the Hodding Carter YMCA with a young black child named Jerry. Despite my being an Asian-American, Jerry and his two cousins (one a boy, the other a girl) have accepted me as their good friend and we play basketball together whenever we can.

The other afternoon Jerry and I were playing basketball when a small white child named Matthew came up to us and said, "Jerry, is that your father? Please ask him if I can play in the game, too." Together, my new "son" Jerry and I and the small white boy had a nice time playing basketball (although I did suffer a heartbreaking 18-12 loss).

The other day I played basketball with three charming girls named Porsha, an African-American girl, Meredith, a Caucasian girl, and Brittany, an African-American girl. Despite my encouragement, Brittany, Porsha and Meredith were despondent because they were having difficulty scoring baskets. So I asked two boys their own age-one, Jerry; the other, a white boy named Alex-to help them. Together, the boys kindly and patiently helped Porsha, Meredith and Brittany with their dribbling, passing and shooting.

Clearly, the best way to overcome racial bigotry and prejudice and promote racial tolerance and understanding is by practicing the teachings of Confucius and Christ, that is, "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you; love others as you love yourself."

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