Monday, February 27, 2006
The Fourth R
The Indianapolis Star ran an interesting article this past Sunday: "Learning their colors: Recognition of race is gradual, but helping kids avoid bigotry should start early" [via Mixed Media Watch]. Check out the sidebar, which reprints a great list of things parents can do to teach their young children about race and racism (from the Southern Poverty Law Center's amazing on-line educational resource Tolerance.org) and gives a few suggestions for further reading.
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2 comments:
Nice tips. Here's one in return. I found the book "Racism Explained to My Daughter" by Tahar Ben Jelloun to be a thoughtful work on discussing issues of difference and race with offspring. While the book definitely has a European slant (as Jelloun now lives in France), the appendices by Americans, particularly those by David Mura and Patricia Williams, are edgier and resonate strongly with my experience.
What an interesting article. I spent my early school days in a very integrated elementary school in Seattle before we moved to the suburbs (academic improvement and larger house needed), so race was just something that I never thought about as a child, besides the fact that I am mixed-race myself.
I do remember when my youngest sister was about 3 (which means I was about 17), and we were watching a baseball game on TV together and she saw Ken Griffey Jr. (who played for the Mariners at the time), and asked me, "Why is his face brown?" I told her "That's the way God made him," and that was that. It was good enough for her, and it works for me, too.
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