There's A Black One...

So...it's finally come up. The issue of race has hit our house. It's come up before, of course. CJ, like any child, has noticed the differences in skin tones and commented on who has brown, orange, peach skin before. Never before has he used the word Black to describe someone though. In fact, more than once I heard him correct someone who said a person had black skin..."It's brown not black...you are so silly." This morning though I'm doing a video on Exercise TV and he blurts it out...There's a black one. What? Where do you learn that? It's not like he used a bad word, but it's clear that the meaning had changed in his head. I don't know why or how. I quickly said something like "what do you think of him?" This was in an attempt to figure out where he heard it or if something had been said to him in a negative way. His response was "He looks cool." I let it go.

Now I am on the computer trying to locate information on how to teach my 4-year-old about race. I am feeling good about the positive steps we've made. CJ is exposed to diverse groups of people (although not as diverse as I would like) and we do take him to cultural events all the time. Many of his books are multicultural and many of his favorite shows are multicultural. That's great. I'm glad we can bring all of the positive images and experiences to him. I just don't know how to teach him the history and how to negate the negative images and stereotypes that he injests on a daily basis on TV and out and about around town. Is it appropriate to start explaining it to him now? I think it is. I don't believe in the "we're all the same" mentality because we are not all the same. I want him to know and understand (at the appropriate level for his age) that society isn't set up on an even playing field and that individuals face all kinds of different barriers (not just racial). Most importantly, I want him to understand that it's our responsibility to help lower those barriers not only for ourselves, but for other individuals as well.

If anyone has any great resources on the subject of teaching children about race, can you please forward me the titles? I am guessing that Ronald Takiki is a bit advanced, but simply putting on his favorite Little Bill episodes is probably not advanced enough at this point.