Whites going outta style...

[elsporko]

See that is the thing I don't think it is. I think that people keep getting told by multicultural clubs and other groups promoting "tolerance" that we should focus on differences.

It used to be "the things we have in common are what show us that we are all people" now the focus is the differences when that is why racisim exists in the first place.

People hate others for the differences.

Newsweek had an article a few months ago about racism and children. It was called something along the lines of "Is Your Baby Racist." Part of it was about how children raised in homes were race was never discussed were more likely to segregate themselves by skin color when allowed to break into groups during school, with the conclusion being that kids aren't stupid enough to not realize they are differant and kids associate with things they are use to. Kids rasised in a home where race was addressed were more likely to associate with all children because a person who was a differant race wasn't strange to them.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I dunno, man, down here in the south, whites are not much of a majority to start with. I mean, statistically they are, but it's probably closer to an even split here than most other places in the county.

You go down to the low country and blacks are definately in the majority.

My kid has been raised her whole life by various teachers in her daycare until i lost my job. She was in daycare until a year ago. Daycare was predominately white, because of the county it was in I guess, but she had about an even racial split of teachers. And I have black friends who she really likes, one of whom is married to a white woman and has two sons she plays with. And my grandmothers nurse is Jamaican and is always over.

So far, I've seen no evidence that my kid has noticed that there is a difference between white and black people. Which is cool. She has various color dolls, which she picked out herself, and it doesnt' seem to occur to her that some are supposedly closer to what she look like than others (truthfully, none of them look like her for reasons Rum stated in another thread....lighter skinned dolls are almost always blonde.)

We watched Holes the other day and the scene where Sam and Katherine got into trouble for kissing, I had to wonder if my kid would understand why (Sam is black and Katherine is not) . Of course, she didn't. All I said to explain was "that other man likes Miss Katherine and doesn't want Sam around. Which was true. Frankly, she doesn't need to hear from me that there might BE a problem with a black man being with a white woman.

[elsporko]

In your case black people aren't a novelty for the child. She has been around other races since she was young. A white child who has rarely ever seen a non-white and has never heard any explanation for non-whites is going to associate more with whites because they have little experience with the non-whites.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, I think you definately have a point. She's not in any segregated situation in her life. Even my church has a pretty broad mix of races and ethnicities. So she's perfectly comfortable with everyone.

I've had friends down from other places where black folks were really rare (places in New England and whatnot) and when they encountered blacks there was a little bit of awkwardness with them. It's not like they were racist, or didn't like being around them or anything like that, it's just that you could tell they felt slightly unsure of themselves. No experience with "different" sorts of folks. They warmed up pretty quick, when they realized it wasn't going to be weird, but at first, you could tell they were slightly out of their element.

[AdminAssistant]

There are very few "non-whites" in my corner of the South, in fact, I knew one black lady in my childhood, my aunt's coworker named Harriet. Harriet was really nice and always gave me a tootsie roll. I thought all black people were called Harriet...didn't know any better!

[jackfaire]

Newsweek had an article a few months ago about racism and children. It was called something along the lines of "Is Your Baby Racist." Part of it was about how children raised in homes were race was never discussed were more likely to segregate themselves by skin color when allowed to break into groups during school, with the conclusion being that kids aren't stupid enough to not realize they are differant and kids associate with things they are use to. Kids rasised in a home where race was addressed were more likely to associate with all children because a person who was a differant race wasn't strange to them.

Race was never discussed in my home and without fail me and my siblings associated with kids from all different backgrounds we grew up in a culturally diverse neighborhood. Skin color meant nothing to us.