Race against racism

A new article published in Newsweek found that kids naturally judge others based on their skin color as young as six months, and avoiding the subject doesn't avoid the issue. When it comes to race, colorblindness doesn't exist. More than that, the new book Nurture Shock argues that changing the way we talk about race to our young children could cause long-term change in the character of our society.

So what should parents do?

Studies at the Children's Research Lab at the University of Texas and at the University of Colorado have found that children as young as 3 should be talked to about race. Children's brains at this age are programmed for categorization and in-group favoritism. They assess their surroundings and group things according to what's visible -- skin color being an obvious category. It's in this developmental period when children are forming their first conclusions about race, whether or not a parent discusses it.

In fact, children as young as 6 months will stare significantly longer at photographs of faces that are of a different race from their parents. They obviously notice the difference. How could they not? In one study, a group of 3 year olds were given a deck of cards with drawings of people on them. When asked to split the deck in two piles, 68 percent divided the cards according to race, while only 16 percent used gender.

Beyond finding that children are not, in fact, colorblind, the article cites that many parents are uncomfortable talking openly about race. A 2007 study in the Journal of Marriage and Family found that out of 17,000 families with kindergartners, 75 percent of white parents never, or almost never, talked about race. Vague terms like "Everybody's equal" and "Under the skin, we're all the same," does not qualify as an explicit discussion on race. It's common to think that pointing out racial differences will encourage children to see divisions in society, but it's apparent that brown skin looks different from white skin. It's right there. Out in the open. Pretending like the difference doesn't exist, or making the topic forbidden, forces children to become intimidated by the mystery of race.

According to the article, talking about race should be just as easy as talking about gender.

"What jumped out at Phyllis Katz [then a professor at the University of Colorado], in her study of 200 black and white children, was that parents are very comfortable talking to their children about gender, and they work very hard to counterprogram against boy-girl stereotypes. That ought to be our model for talking about race. The same way we remind our daughters, 'Mommies can be doctors just like daddies,' we ought to be telling all children that doctors can be any skin color. It's not complicated what to say. It's only a matter of how often we reinforce it."

Are you comfortable talking to your children about race? How do you approach it?

For more about what I think, read this.