childlike

“It contrasts so well with his exterior of being this great warrior and pillaging and killing and doing all that. But on the inside, he’s quite soft and cuddly and quite childlike.”

She envisions some childlike life where there might be a happy middle ground, one where fairytales can exist and she can be the subject of them.

When Garfield speaks about joy, the memories that rise to the surface also offer a childlike vision of domestic bliss: visiting Disneyland with his family, playing basketball, sledding at Christmastime, his mother’s cooking.

Still, Neville does manage to bring his profile — including its childlike style — around to an idea that resonates.

The underlying assumption is that Black people as a group are stupid, dumb, unintelligent, inherently childlike and primitive, possess “bad culture” and in other ways are inferior to white people.