"We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"

I can remember taking my son to Wal-Mart when he was about two years old. My husband is a pastor and has a friend that is an African American pastor. As we were walking in to Wal-Mart, we ran in to Mr. Rue. We all spoke, and my son looked at him and then back as us and said, “Why does he have that dirt all over his face?” Of course I was absolutely petrified. I could not believe that my son had said that. I apologized and Mr. Rue kept saying it was fine and not to worry. I never had thought about it, but my son had probably never really seen anyone that was African American before and certainly did not know any better. I grew up playing with African American children; therefore, I thought nothing about it. After we said our goodbyes with Mr. Rue, I turned to my son and proceeded to explain that God makes us all different colors. Some people are white, black, and brown, and we are all made in our own special way.
He initially thought he was in big trouble because of my verbal and my nonverbal cues. He knew right away that I was concerned about what he had said.
An anti-bias educator might have used books or pictures to show and talk about people of different colors to a child that made a comment like this. I love the idea of having dolls that are both white/African American as well as girl and boy dolls. These are great ways for children to learn about diversity. I knew there was a video on television called Little Bill, and I chose to show him that video, just to make a connection to Mr. Rue. He loved the show, and as he has grown up, he has learned to be more careful of what he says to and about people. Although race and racism are difficult topics, it is important to educate ourselves and discuss them with children in an age-appropriate way (Winkler, 2009).
References
Winkler, Erin. (2009). Children are not colorblind: How young children learn race. High Reach Learning.
Retrieved from http://www.4uwm.edu