Reply to White parents: what are you teaching your white preschool age children about racism?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I've literally never talked to my kindergartener about race. Like never even mentioned that people have different skin colors. I live in a diverse area and he has plenty of black friends since he was in daycare. Some of his best friends are black and we have black, Hispanic and Asian friends. He doesn't see just white at school and at home so I think he sees diversity. I'm not sure how to talk to him about race other than to demonstrate treating people respectfully. If you have ideas, I'm open. [/quote]

I have twins in Kindergarten.  They are white but have friends of many different races.  They are into horses and their two favorite TV shows have prominent black characters (a vet and a mayor, among others), as do their books and toys.  However, it's just enough to see see diversity.  You have to begin to make your kids understand that racism is out there and alive today.  I'm not saying you should show them the video of George Floyd being murdered, but surely your child has encountered another child being picked on or treated differently for some reason or another by this point.  I'm not saying there is serious bullying going on at your school, but there's no way by this point your kid hasn't seen someone treated differently because of something (doesn't have to be race).  That's where you can talk about how some people treat people of different races differently and it's not ok.  It's not enough to say "well I'm not overtly racist and neither is my kid because they see diversity."  Your kid needs to start to learn about covert white supremacy, racial bias, and a thousand other topics that are actually pretty easily raised at this age.  If you start talking to them about this stuff when they're in Kindergarten, they will be so much more aware of it when they get older.  You can google "how to talk to kids about racism" and come up with tons of different ideas right now.  So please do that.[/quote]

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