When I was young, and most people believed that to have white skin made you superior to someone with black skin, a man was selling balloons at a carnival. He had balloons of various colours, which he filled with helium gas. Every now and then he would release one of them into the air and kids would come from everywhere to buy one.

While he was busy with his young customers, he felt someone tug at his jacket. He turned around to see a little West Indian boy standing there. The boy said: ‘Mister, if you release a black balloon will it fly just as high?’ That man put his hand on the boy’s head and said: ‘Son, it’s not the colour of the balloon that counts, it’s what’s inside that makes it go up.’

And nothing has changed. As the Bible says: ‘Man may look on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.’