by April J.

Created on: January 22, 2009

One of the universal truths about children everywhere is that they can be counted on to ask the tough questions. Parents need to be prepared to answer those tough questions, because if they don't, it is almost guaranteed that their curious children will seek an answer somewhere else, and sometimes that answer may not exactly be the most desirable one...

Possibly some of the hardest questions to answer involve racial differences and racism, because of humanity's poor historical track record in this area, and because it is a complex, emotionally-charged issue. This article will discuss how to manage discussions about ethnic and racial differences when your child brings up the topic.

PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES

When I started school in Barbados at the age of 5, my siblings and I were the only Caucasian children in the school at the time. I can still remember the first day being surrounded by the other children who wanted to examine and feel my strange white-blond hair and look at my weird pale skin! This type of open discussion is acceptable among children because they are innocent and unburdened by illogical social constructs about race. To them, they see someone who looks different and are curious about why, so they go and ask! Most likely they then come away with a new piece of cool knowledge about the world (in this case "many Canadians have pale skin and some have white-blond hair") and likely a new friend in the process.

There is not a child in this world that is born racist. That is a learned social phenomenon, which is good news because it means that it is preventable. The first time that a young child brings up the topic of ethnic differences, it is most likely to be out of curiosity, along the lines of "oh hey that person looks different than me! How come?" These are the easiest questions about race to answer, and are likely to crop up the earliest. Instilling the right answers to these early questions can lay a good groundwork for acceptance and tolerance when the tougher issues come up later on.

When answering questions about physical differences, you can explain that there are many ways that people are unique. Point out that some people have green eyes, others have blue; some people have blond hair, some have red, some black etc. Similarly, some people have white skin, some have black, some medium etc. If the next question (which it very well could be) is "why?", you can explain that when 2 people have a child, each of them passes on parts of traits that they

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>