How Preschoolers See Color and Race
Mary Whitfield, Early Childhood Educator

Understanding Racial Words
Race is a subject that many adults are uncomfortable talking about and are sometimes trying to figure out for themselves what words to use for racial groups.  This is an adult notion that means nothing to a preschooler. 

Children don’t understand the concept of racial groups but they do see differences in people.  In the classroom we have observed children touching another child’s hair that is different from their own.  We saw a Black girl patting a Latina girl’s smooth hair and we have seen a White child touching a Black child’s coarser hair.

Even when using adult’s words that refer to skin color, young children understand the words quite differently.  They may understand that their skin is a certain color but not that they belong to a collective racial group.  With their limited experience young children often use other words to describe racial skin tones such as those related to what they know about food – words like chocolate or vanilla.

Generally, 3-year-olds don’t have a clue about their race.  Four-year-olds may start referring to themselves by racial terms such as brown, peach, or yellow.  Color identification differs from racial identification.  At this age skin color is irrelevant to self-image.  Their self identity stems mainly from their name, gender and familial relationships and not from identification about their race.

Knowing a label or word does not mean that a child will understand the underlying concept.  My husband was an African American.  When my son was two years old he saw a picture in a magazine of a Black man.  He said he looked like Daddy.  He then noticed that his own skin, which was more like White, was different from his Dad’s.  Many times children of color or children from mixed races seem to become aware of race earlier than their white peers.

Children often believe that they can change their skin color just like they believe they can change their gender.  They often believe that skin color can be washed off or that darker skin is just dirty.  When my niece was 4-years-old she asked my husband how he knew when he was clean.  The question mortified my sister but Walt understood her misunderstanding and her innocence.

How Preschoolers Begin to Learn Racial Attitudes
Children develop their identity and attitudes through experiences with their bodies, social environments, and during their cognitive developmental stages.  Preschoolers begin to see how people who are important to them (parents, relatives, etc) react positively or negatively to people of different races.  If young children use racist comments or words they are hearing them and learning them at home.  When skin color is frequently discussed in a family, children will learn at a young age the meaning behind the color word (positively or negatively)

It’s important to provide early contact with other races to avoid children developing cultural stereotypes about those races.  Having little or no contact with other races helps create a “them” and “us” view of the world.  It becomes hard to combat racial stereotypes that thrive in the absence of personal contact.  Children who are accustomed to interacting with people of other races from an early age have a social advantage because they fit in anywhere – they also have a cognitive advantage because they are less likely to see people in racially stereotypical ways.

Children can also learn stereotypes and attitudes about race from the world around them, which includes books and various media such as television and movies.  There have been many instances of racism identified in Disney movies including "The Jungle Book" which portrays gorillas and orangutans that sound like black people and "Oliver and Company", with a Chihuahua named Alonzo that is typecast as a Latino troublemaker.  These negative stereotypes are what children may remember when they hear someone speak with a similar accent.

In the movie "Aladdin", Jafar is portrayed as a bad Arab with a thick foreign accent and looks very Arabic.  Jasmine and Aladdin speak standard English and have a more American look.  In "The Lion King", the hyenas clearly speak in a kind of street, inner city African American dialect and are considered the bad guys.  When parents can explain these stereotypes to young children it can help them avoid building negative biases and prejudices. 

Our job is to help children learn tolerance and acceptance of people of different races, cultures and ethnicities.  Whenever we take steps toward valuing diversity those are steps in the right direction.

Raising the Racially Healthy Preschooler
       
Suggestions for parents

1. Provide the basics – love, support, feeling valued
2. Nurture self-worth – take care as to the values you convey
3. Empathize: try to see things from your child’s perspective
4. Watch what you and others say about your child’s color and other physical characteristics – focus on internal characteristics such as “happy child”
5. Talk about people in terms of their internal characteristics instead of their skin color or race
6. Focus on developing your child’s character and talents
7. Be careful not to pass on your own racial prejudice
8. Be mindful of your own skin-color sensitivities
9. Be brief in your responses to your child’s questions
10. Be careful what information about racism you share
11. Encourage your child to become acquainted with people of other races
12. Monitor your child’s television viewing and work to avoid harmful stereotyping
13. Acquaint children with their own family history
14. Expose your child to a variety of books and dolls
15. Carefully select your child’s preschool or childcare setting
16. Teach children the Golden Rule:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Recommended Children’s Books:

1. "What I Like About Me", by Allia Zobel-Nolan.  This book features flaps, pull tabs, touch-and-feel pages and shows kids that being different is what makes us special.
2. "Feast for Ten", by Cathryn Falwell.  A family goes shopping and then brings it all home and prepares a feast.
3. "We Are All Alike…We Are All Different", by the Cheltenham Elementary School Kindergartners.  This book reinforces multicultural and anti-bias learning and appreciation. 
4. "Amazing Grace", by Mary Hoffman.  Grace is told by her classmates she can’t play Peter Pan in the play because she is a girl and because she is Black.  Her Grandmother teaches her that she can be anything she wants to be if she puts her mind to it.
5. "Whoever You Are", by Mem Fox.  This lovely book talks about how people are the same all over the world.
6. "Family", by Isabell Monk.  A family from the city drives to the farm for a family gathering.
7. "I Like Myself!", by Karen Beaumont.  The lesson of this book is feeling good about yourself no matter what.
8. "Busy Toes", by C. W. Bowie.  What a lot of fun things our toes can do.
9. "Shades of Black", by Sandra Pinkney.  Colors from smooth brown to creamy white to brassy yellow.  We are many different shades.
10. "I Am America", by Charles R. Smith Jr.  This book is a celebration of the many faces of children growing up in America.
11. The series of books by Ann Morris is excellent.  Beautiful photographs are taken from all over the world and depict many aspects of life.  They include:

"Bread, Bread, Bread"
"Families"
"Hats, Hats, Hats"
"Houses and Homes"
"Loving"
"On the Go"
"Play"
"Shoes, Shoes, Shoes"
"Teamwork"
"Tools"
"Weddings"
"Work"

Sources: 
"I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla" by Maguerite A. Wright
"Stereotypes & Racism in Children’s Movies" by Libby Burnette, Claudette Mallory & Shannon Wood

Additional Resources:
"Does Anybody Else Look Like Me?" By Donna Nakazawa
http://www.babycentre.co.uk/preschooler/difficultsubjects/race/
http://www.handinhandparenting.org/csArticles/articles/000000/000017.htm
http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/article-stereotypes.html