The podcast was great....but my main takeaway is that you need to talk talking to your kids about the fact that people have different skin colors early. Not mentioning it and not talking about it can lead to kids thinking that it is something shameful or something bad. Interested in listening to the podcast? You can find it here.
That afternoon after I picked Izzy up from school we had a casual conversation about differences in hair color, eye color and then the fact that some of her friends and some of her teachers at school have different color skin. I was so proud of her that after the discussion we talked about the fact that everyone is the same on the inside, her conclusion was "we are all human." Perfect.
Yesterday as we were driving to school Izzy asked about the white person on the walk sign. She said, "I'm not white" so we had another race conversation where we talked about the fact that we are considered white even though we aren't technically white in color, how black people are actually brown, etc. She then made up a song that went,
I am white, white, white
You are black, black, black
I was a little worried that she would show up at school singing this song so I offered up that she should add a third line- something like "But we are all the same." She refused ("No Mommy that is not how the song goes"), finally deciding to end the song with "Hi ho the deerio we all have different skin." Sure kiddo, that works too.
I plan on continuing to talk to her about this issue- never forcing it into a conversation, but waiting until it comes naturally. I may even buy some of the books that are recommended on the podcast website.
Are you doing anything to talk to your kids about race?
4 comments:
The daycare Button (and Mack) attend is pretty diverse, where seeing children with different color skin is just another day, but we have addressed "differences" latel...
we were out to eat recently, and a girl with (arm) braces walked by slowly, and Button stared.
I told him it was ok to look, but he shouldn't stare. If he was interested or curious, he could ask me or Daddy, or even ask the person. (Children have an honest and innocent curiosity, most people I've spoken to said they'd prefer just being asked about their differences, whatever they may be...)
so tough to know how to address it, but I love the song ending! =P
This is interesting. We are lucky in that we have a fairly diverse group of people in our lives, though I think the kids would benefit from the conversation. I deliberately signed my 3 year old up for a pre-school with a rainbow of races of children.I am terrified to raise a racist. It's something I think about often. My neighbors seem like the nicest people- and then they come out with a stream of racism like you wouldn't believe. I don't want hate to win.
I'm not 100% in charge of my stepkids, obviously, but I do a LOT of damage control on the SUPER RACIST HORRIBLE views they are learning from their neighborhood/school groups/friends/church. It's...it's exhausting. Gaaah.
xox
My children and I are not the same race, so this is a conversation that is really just a part of our every-day lives. My daughter struggles with interacting with people who have disabilities - she isn't always kind. I'm trying to work on that with her, to have her ask me a question nicely instead of rudely asking, "What's wrong with her/him?"
Cute story, I had three little girls as a foster placement who were black and I am white. The oldest girl was sitting next to me holding her arm next to mine and noticing we were not the same color. She seemed sort of sad about this. Then, she flipped my hand over and laid hers on top. Excitedly she exclaimed, "Look our hands are the same color!" She was so happy to find we had something in common and the lesson I took away from that experience is this - we don't have to look too hard to find commonalities as fellow human beings.
Now, I shall go listen to this podcast. :)
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