Reply to Explaining racism and sexism to 3.5 year old?

Forum Index » Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers

Reply to "Explaining racism and sexism to 3.5 year old? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]White patent of a slightly older kid here. I agree you need to address it. I think people saying “no, wait” must live in very white communities. My kid became interested in race at age 3 right before starting preschool at a school that was 90% black. You bet I had to talk to her about it.

Having said that, I’ve also learned that once you start talking about it, you are not going to put a nice “diversity and inclusion” ribbon on it and put it to bed. It’s an ongoing conversation and it gets harder, not easier. Buckle up.

My kid has asked me the following questions in last couple years:

- Are all my black friends’ moms nannies for white kids?
- Why do black people smoke on the street all the time? (we live in a neighborhood where a group of black men smoke pot on a specific block most days)
- Is it okay if I don’t like all black people? These books make it seem like I need to like all black people.

And so on. Some of these Qs technically have easy answers, but that doesn’t mean she gets it when I explain. The thing you have to remember over and over is that little kids have extremely narrow frames of reference. They cannot conceptualize stuff like slavery, civil rights, institutional racism. They kind of can, but in these simplistic ways based on their much more limited experience with race. Also, yes, the POC in their classes are talking about race at home too. But that doesn’t mean they are getting a message about diversity and inclusion! They may instead be talking about having pride and love for their own race. Which you understand as an adult, but will make your kid say stuff like “My friends say black power sometimes. Why can’t I say white power?” Again, the answer here is technically easy (Nazis, white supremacy, slavery, etc.) but is hard for a kid, even at 6 or 7, to wrap their head around.

So yes, by all means, get the books and have the conversations. But it never ends. Prepare yourself for that.[/quote]

Very Valuable insight here, thank you for posting this[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics