Boy's surprising request for haircut to trick teacher goes viral

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A boy who turns 5 this week is spreading love and acceptance around the world.

Jax Rosebush told his mother last Friday morning that he wanted his hair cropped extremely close when he got it cut over the weekend so he could look exactly like his friend Reddy. Jax said he couldn't wait for his teacher to see him Monday because she wouldn't be able to tell him and Reddy apart.

Jax's mother Lydia Stith Rosebush was so amused by her conversation with Jax, she posted about it on Facebook later Friday morning. Her amusement goes a hair deeper than the obvious.

"He thought it would be so hilarious to confuse his teacher with the same haircut," Rosebush wrote. "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."

Not their skin color.

Since Rosebush posted the story on her personal Facebook page, it's been shared more than 5,100 times. Lydia only has a little more than 300 Facebook friends.

Not only that, the story has been picked up by Huffington Post UK, PopSugar.com, French media and local television stations across the United States. Now, several other national and international media outlets have expressed interest.

"This is total insanity!" Rosebush said Tuesday. "I just made the post because my kid is hilarious and cute. I never anticipated this. 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."

It's a lesson Jax might never have had the opportunity to teach because he and Reddy almost never made it into each other's orbit.

Reddy and his older brother Enock were born in Africa. They were 2 and 4 years old when they were adopted by Kevin Weldon, pastor of Carlisle Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, and his wife Debbie. The Weldons are white.

"My sons do not look like me... but we are family all the same," Kevin Weldon said. "We share the same last name, love each other with all we have, and are a forever family. One day when I am gone, they will inherit all that I have and carry on our family name."

Jax, meanwhile, just wants to carry on Reddy's hairdo.

WAVE reports that Lydia decided to let Jax get a buzz cut on Tuesday and Reddy and his family members were there too.

"It's really cool to see that move on from our family right into his relationships with his friends," Kevin Weldon, Reddy's father, said. "There's an innocence children have that sometimes we lose. If we could get some of that back, I think it would be amazing."