Teaching children about race and ethnicity?
Answer:
What is so funny is that it is easy to explain when the child is older, but how do you explain it when the child is different. I too was faced with this question when my daughter was in kindergarden. They had to do self portraits, and the teacher gave her a black piece of paper, and she wouldn't take it then a brown and she wouldn't take it, and then a white piece of paper and she wouldn't take it. So finally the teacher told her to pick out a piece of paper that she thought most looked like her. So she picked a vanilla colored piece of paper. The teacher had a hard time with this, because my daughter is half black and half white.
My husband and I decided to use the rainbow to reflect different colors and shades for people. Saying that God created people like the colors of the rainbow.
let them figure it out
kids can figure this stuff out on their own.
First, teach children that the term "African American" is wrong.
Blacks should not be called "African Americans", unless of course, they or their parents migrated from Africa.
It's pandering.
Pandering is racism.
Stop being a racist.
Pull out a world map. Teach them about geography. Say that some ancestors are from a different place than others, and use the map to guide and learn about different cultures.
I wouldn't start using colors and labels. I would go for a cultural integration and geographic history approach that doesn't focus on racism.
children learn by example and if u treat them the same so will ur kids. a simple there skin is darker becuz that's the way God made them should do.
they have books and videos for kids explaining all these things you should look into them.
just like M&Ms...different shades on the outside, but all the same on the inside.
I'm white and my husband is Mexican so it's a good thing i don't have to worry about that because my son see's us all the same, and that makes my very happy!!
One approach is to demonstrate how animals come in different colors. Then make a paralellel to humans. Using the term brown to refer to African Americans is not "wrong," but is certainly far less important than making sure that your toddler understands that we are all the same inside.
when you are out and about point out that ,that person is browned skinned,that person is Chinese,etc
I can remember when I first realized some people were different. My mom simply told me that there are all sorts of different looking and colored people from different places in the world.
She told me it was just a color. Like horses are different colors.
I never thought of it past that. I didnt even know people were racist until I was in 3rd grade and my best friend was a little black girl named Christina, the play ground aid would always yell at her and not me. I asked her one day why teachers yelled at her and not me when we did the same thing, she said it was because she was black.
God that really rocked my world. I had no idea that people would even see something different in skin color. lol.
my mom taught me the same thing about people with missing limbs, or distorted faces. That instead of different colors, they have different bodies. It just made sense to me.
Don't let them watch the news or they will all be raciest.
People are so uptight about that stuff.Politicians and the media are the worst,when it comes to causing racial problems.
Let the course work itself out, when they ask you what something is, you explain. simple enough.
The same way you teach them about people of differing height and hair color. Its genetic. Teach them to pity the short black man and revere the tall white man. And feel equal to those who are the same size and color as themselves.
alot of what our kids learn are bad ideas from the media. children are not born racists, but they can learn racism. I teach my kids brown, tan, beige, not white, and so on. politically correct statements teach a feeling of seperatism to children who dont understand why they cannot relate just by the obvious.
My kids are african, not black, just half african and half white american. My kids look white but only 5 of the people they know in thier lives are white, they know several other people who are arab and black, even asian. My 5 year old, speaking 4 languages and having spent alot of time in africa has gotten a fear of black men in the last month after a cartoon on cartoon network shown a few black guys as robbers. He is now scared of his uncle who looks like one of those guys.
our tvs are full of racism, my husband likes bet, and I do, too, but isnt it a very racist idea?
Our media is corrupting our kids, it makes it hard for us to teach them what they see is not correct.
I teach my kids that we are all Americans. It doesn't matter about skin color.
I was made fun of during school because I looked different. People used to call me their Korean friend. It drove me nuts because I have never been to Korea, the only word I know in Korean is the word for fart, and I probably couldn't even find Korea on a map.
I like the M&M answer. Different on the outside but the same on the inside.
My son is bi-racial (Asian/Caucasian) and we live in a very diverse community so he will grow up thinking 'different' is the norm. I will have more difficulty explaining racism when it becomes an issue because he will be raised with tolerance and will not understand why people hate because of skin color or language.
Children understand so much more than they are given credit for. We have five children (brady bunch style) and we are always open and honest with our children about anything they ask from skin color to sex. I've explained everything from people of irish decent being really pale to those of African decent being much darker. The main thing I teach my children about race is that we may look different, but we bleed the same. My children range in age from 6 to eleven so I do have a close-knit bunch. With kids in ages like that I get some doozies for questions.
I see no problem with students young students having a problem with other races. They should... we have these damn mexicans that come over here illegaly and get money from our government to pay for food for their three million little bambinos. need i remined you that that is our hard earned money that these damn beaners are getting. And dont even get me started on those porch monkeys. They dont do ****. They sit around their house not doing anything. All they do is complain about everything. But I will say that there is a difference between a ****** and a black person. teach them that they should understand what the illegal imigrants are doing. show them the truth.
its not a matter of race, its a matter of what the races, how they act, talk, etc..., are doing to this country. im so sick of people sticking up for the races when its the white people who have set up great things like this.
First - be honest, and don't make your child feel ashamed for asking. If you act embarrassed that he asked you'll make him feel like the issue is much more important that it actually is and it may cause him to feel that something is wrong with his skin tone or the skin tone of someone who looks different.
Second - don't go into too much detail. A 2 year old is not asking about ethnic history. He just wants to know why that person at the mall looks brown and he looks white (actually, probably closer to peach).
The easy (and probably most useful) answer is to say, "your skin looks like mommy and daddy's and his looks like his mommy and daddy's.
If your child asks why, say, "because his great-great-great grandma and granddad come from a different part of the world than your great grandparents do, but now we all live here."
Kids can figure these things out for themselves. When they ask about other people refer to them by their gender and the race that they are, which is the race we ALL belong to, the "HUMAN RACE".
my daughter never asked me but i just told her there are all kinds of different people with different skin color and thats ok i have a friend who is african american and as a joke we asked her what color he is and she said brown it was so cute she has no idea about racial issues and problems and i would like to keep it that way as far as she is concerned everyone is different and that ok period
The explanation is much less important that the attitude and example.
Many people want to teach their children to not be prejudice, but they only have cookie cutter friends, themselves.
I, personally, don't like the word, "Race," so I will tell you that I am totally blind and so is my children's father.
My children are bi-cultural.
We teach them that God, Yes, I said, GOD, creates everyone different. Even you and your sister are different. Some differences are shown on the outside and some on the inside.
But, we celebrate each one's difference.
We don't ignore it and act as if we are all the same and thet there is not difference.
That is silly!
There is a diference.
A good difference.
I don't want people to act as if I am not blind.
That would be ignoring my blindness.
I get enough of that.
I want people to recognize my difference and be comfortable with it.
People act as if we should live in this colorless society.
1. That won't happen
2. WHy? I am quite proud of my children's darker skin color and tell them often. Just as I am proud of mine.
And, before anyone asks, no I don't tan, even though I am white.
God has made me who I am a I am proud of his work!
Just as I ccelebrate my children's qualities.
We are wonderfully made!
ANd, if you believe what I say and agree with it, yet still have no friends (not just acquaintances) who look different than you, then your actions are not lining up with your words.
I live in quite a small town, but I have friends with various skin tones, various language abilities, who come from different places in the world and who have varying degrees of physical and intelectual abilities.
We respect and appreciate each for who they are.
And, I don't say it, I live it!
THen, it is easier to teach your child about ethnicity because you actually live it.
Whatever you do, please do it all in love, letting your child know that God made all of the differing colors and nationalities of people. He loves variety and doesn't want us to have divisions because of the way we look. Tell your child that people are the same on the inside and that we look different on the outside for beauty, variety and a spectrum of love in the world.
I have two daughters: 6 and 10
they have never ask us about those "differences"
I think for children, the difference of color in the skin is as normal as the difference in ears shapes, or nose shapes, or body types, etc, etc. that is until some adult put in their little heads the idea that people is better or worse, depending in how they look
Toddlers, up to about 6 do not see ethnicity... they see color. And it is perfectly normal for them to ask why kids are brown. Some may not even notice any difference in the color and that is awesome. Being the mother of two children who have a white parent and black parent, my daughter always colored her face brown in the photos and my son never did; he made his face flesh like everyone else. My daughter is aware of the differences, but my son is not. To each their own. With the same upbringing they are completely opposite. But as long as they know that everyone is important and special it does not matter the color.
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