How do you talk to your child about racism?

Amalea - posted on 03/22/2010

Something that I used was examples of how blacks were treated in america before and after slavery. using examples of how native americans were treated also helped alot. Its good that black history month is so common, it helped my son understand racism alot. the hardest question to answer is when they ask why? Its hard to explain to children that people are just mean sometimes. But its something that has to be done. and if you teach your child the truth about the racism that was in amreican history, and teach them that its wrong, theyll be better educated from it. another thing that was jsut as bad as racism is that kids make fun of mentally and physically handicapped kids. teaching your kid to not give into such crude behavior will make hhim understand to ignore it as he gets older.

Nicole - posted on 03/18/2010

I have lawys talked to my children about racism and explained that some people are ignorany and under educated. At the age of three it might be a little difficult for the child to understand this but an approach could be these people just do not know you and do not get to see just how wonderful and special you are. I think it is really important to build them up so when people try and knock them down with ignorant comments they can alwys hear what you have been saying to them and they will know that it isn ot true and eventually that those people are ignorant.

Kim - posted on 03/17/2010

Keep it real...let them know that people are ignorant and that they are not worth friendship. Its a fact that it exists and letting our kids know that not everyone is as intelligent as them makes it a lighter subject...LOL...we just look at people like that as a joke...dont let it consume you, it will always be an issue, so keep your kids proud of who THEY are so that the stupid people are always just that...STUPID!

Marlana - posted on 03/15/2010

i totally agree with shanna, children are not prejudice when it comes to who they play with unless the other child hits or doesnt share. I think that the problem definitely comes from the parents and its really too bad that this situation would be happening to you, and I am sorry to hear it. My husbands family is from hawaii as well and as you said, people are very open and unbiased from what I have seen, I love it there. Unfortunately the whole world can't be hawaii and it sounds like you are going to have to find some people worthy of your time outside of your neighborhood.

Shea - posted on 03/13/2010

Okay...unless your 3 year old (I doubt it) is a total heathen who refuses to share, It's not (in my opinion) the children that don't like to play with him. He's 3! It's the parents behind the children who don't want their children playing with him. Prejudice is taught. Even if they aren't saying anything our children can definitely pick up on our feelings and become extentions of us. With that being said..take it day by day. There is no set rules to follow just do your best to make sure he knows he's so much more then just a color.



best of luck

Amy - posted on 03/12/2010

My little girl is mixed blk/wht and her father and his side of the family were never in the picture. I found it was easier when she was smaller to find cute little books to read to her because she knew it was story time and it helped her to see the little pictures. That way she knew right away that the world has lots of different colors. When she got into school it was a littler harder b/c the other kids would ask her why i was white and she wasnt. But they are smarter than what we think and she actually came up with her own answer...God thought mommy was too pale and gave me a tan! I loved it so much its still our favorite :) It is a hard question because all kids are different. The only advice I can give you is that try not to make it a big deal. I found if I saw something that i thought was racist and i questioned she would notice and get a little upset or confused about it but if i kept it to myself she would barely notice and continue to play or do what she was doing. I guess really the biggest thing we can do is teach them how to treat others and be ready to hold them and answer questions as honest as possible when they start picking up on differences.

Kathleen - posted on 03/05/2010

this is such a tough question! i think its especially hard for those of us who did not grow up as the minority in a racist place. i'm white and my husband is black. i find that his family is much better equipped to teach kids about race/racism than my family and i are because they deal with it all the time. so we try to be honest with our kids when we talk about race but, for us, it is a topic that can't be only talked about. our kids need to be connected to my husband's side of the family, to feel good about themselves as part of that community, and to benefit from all they know about dealing with race. we also try to make sure our kids know other kids from different backgrounds. when we move farther away from his family, we'll have to work hard to ensure we don't get too segregated from mixed race communities and communities of color. i just don't think we can make sense of race in an all-white world because, quite frankly, white communities are infamously bad at making sense of race!

good luck talking with your son. thanks for bringing up the topic!