Overcoming Children's Negative Perceptions of Race

A chronicle of stories, tips, and information for adults who want to address racism in children's lives.

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TEACHERS INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN

Besides their home environment, schools can be one of the first places that children are exposed to and learn about race and culture.

Teachers are the leading influence of children’s perceptions on race in the classroom.

By incorporating multicultural training into teachers’ classrooms, especially white teachers, it could help develop positive attitudes about race among their students.

These programs are designed to teach them to discuss issues of race with their students that have traditionally maintained a culture of silence in racial issues in the classroom (Lawrence, 2005).

If teachers learn to diminish racial biases and incorporate multiculturalism in their curriculum, it can leave a positive impression on their students perceptions of race.

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TEACHER INFLUENCE

This video is a news story that shows that racism is present in teachers and at school. A teacher kept making racial remarks and stereotypical comments to a young black male. In this news story there were several instances where the teacher used comments singling out the black race. The teacher’s comments were racial remarks even if she didn’t mean for them to be perceived that way. A teacher is an influential peer among students and needs to be well educated about the topic of race. 

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POSITIVE TELEVISION SHOWS, LIKE "ARTHUR"

After watching the short episode of Arthur, we can see that having programs like this will benefit our youth and their perceptions towards other races. The introduction of the show does a good job of highlighting positive interactions between different racial groups. It is important for parents and adults to share this program with the children in their lives. The rest of this episode shows an interracial friendship develop between a white child and brown child. It also shows how the mother of the white child is very accepting of their friendship and encourages them to spend more time together. If children are exposed to this, they will be able to associate this type of friendship as a positive idea. Seeing the encouragement and support of these friendships from the mother of the white child will give children more reassurance that these interracial friendships are important.

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THE INFLUENCE OF TELEVISION

As early as age 6, children are able to show favoritism towards their own group or race (Vittrup & Holden, 2011).

Young children are likely to view media content as a glimpse of reality which makes them more likely to be influenced by what they are seeing on television.

Their attitudes from what they see are then carrying over to how they interact with other children outside of their race.

Subconsciously, children are able to see distinctions between racial groups in TV shows.

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Top 10 Racist Cartoon Moments

What we can learn from this video clip is that Disney movies aren’t the wholesome family movies we grew up thinking they were. The racial stereotypes that these characters portray are inappropriate and somewhat shocking. Most adults are not aware of these overt acts of racism that are shown in Disney movies. This is why it is important for parents to be monitoring what their children are watching on TV so we can begin to eliminate kids’ negative perceptions on race.

HOW DO WE CHANGE THIS?

Promoting cross racial friendships in a positive light through television programs.

The more children see these interactions, they will be more likely to imitate interracial friendships outside their homes.

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REGGAE ~ ONE LOVE

I grew up listening to tons of reggae by artists of all skin colors- Marley, Tosh, Steele Pulse, Alpha Blondy, Israel Vibration, UB40, Groundation, Manu Chau, Black Uhuru, and more. Reggae is great for kids due to its groovy beats and uplifting lyrics that constantly advocate equality.  

Taking its lyrics from a speech by Haile Selassie, Bob Marley's "War" is one of music’s most eloquent and powerful statements about racism. As far as a distillation of anti-racist sentiment goes, you can’t really do a whole lot better than this: “Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war.” Quite.

More empowering and beautiful "War" lyrics...

That until there no longer First class and second class citizens of any nation Until the colour of a man's skin Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes Me say war. That until the basic human rights Are equally guaranteed to all, Without regard to race Dis a war. That until that day The dream of lasting peace, World citizenship Rule of international morality Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, But never attained Now everywhere is war - war.

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Neil Young — “Southern Man”

Songs like this are good for children because there is no cussing and it makes as a bridge between historical and modern issues (slavery to affirmative action). 

“I saw cotton, and I saw black/ Tall white mansions and little shacks/ Southern man, when will you pay them back?” The song went down like a sack of crap in the South, predictably enough. It's about racism and the unjust way African-Americans were treated in the Southern U.S. for many years going back to slavery, and are still today. 

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Alas! A song by white singers that combats racism- Depeche Mode "People Are People"

Most of us in this group grew up listening to this song and loved it. It was noted that we didn't necessarily understand the lyrics when we were kids. You remember that time you were a kid and always sang along with songs, then a few years later you hear the song again and realize the only sing-along was your lyrics being wrong all along? Yep, that's me with this song. Well I can say I like this song even more now that I know it is advocating equality. It is important for parents to explain lyrics to kids, especially when they provide a positive message. 

A selection of the lyrics: 

People are people So why should it be You and I should get along so awfully So we're different colours And we're different creeds And different people have different needs It's obvious you hate me Though I've done nothing wrong I've never even met you so what could I have done I can't understand What makes a man Hate another man Help me understand

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Music's Affect

The types of music played for young minds can have a strong affect on their perceptions of race. 

Parents play music for children in order to sooth and stimulate their minds. 

American society is full of musical representations and symbolism of race. 

As children gain more freedom of choice when they grow older, they begin to choose the music they listen to with less parental consent. 

Some parents may not think twice about the music their child listens to.

It is important for parents and caregivers to pay close attention to the genre, lyrics, and themes conveyed in the music children listen to.  

Music that contains racist, racially prejudice, or derogatory lyrics about race can all negatively affect the way children think of people of color. 

White supremacy songs instill the ideal of white privilege and white domination. 

Young children are the most vulnerable to absorbing derogatory themes about race and their listening habits must be monitored. 

Lyrics are the most influential part of music, followed by superstardom of musicians. 

If censorship or monitoring is not done, children are likely to assimilate and believe hateful notions of race. 

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Even Babies Discriminate: A NurtureShock Excerpt.

Kids as young as 6 months judge others based on skin color. What's a parent to do?

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Recommended further reading...

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children [Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman] is one of the most influential books about children ever published.  Nurture Shock offers a revolutionary new perspective on children that upends a library's worth of conventional wisdom. 

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What Parents Tell Their Kids About Race

Parental advice is often taken with a pinch of skepticism,€” especially when it comes to race. 

This website offers tells about a way in which parents have the ability to influence their children's racial perspective. It offers a commentary slide show where NPR’s Twitter followers answer race related questions in regards to their upbringing. This article points out how different people are raised in different ways in regards to race and how those experiences shapes their racial perceptions.

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The discussion of race is never a black and white issue, and recent "AC360°" and CNN.com reports about young children's attitudes on race became one of the most discussed stories on the CNN website, eliciting more than 4,500 comments.

In this article, CNN's Anderson Cooper talks to two children about their skin color preferences. The story  features a few episodes of children's race preferences in regards to the “Kids on Race” Studies. There is a link within the article with an interview of the psychologists behind construction of the test talk done in the study.

In the study, white children had an overwhelming bias toward white, and black children also had a bias toward white, but it was not nearly as strong as the bias shown by the white children.

Many users of the site thought parenting was the issue behind the results, some thought the kids were too naive and others thought the testing method was flawed.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/19/doll.study.reactions/index.html

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"The problem here is that if parents do not talk to their kid about race and how to perceive people that are 'different from them', they would simply form their opinions based on whatever [right or wrong] they gather from society."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/19/doll.study.reactions/index.html

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Kids on Race - 2012 CNN report

This study with Anderson Cooper exhibits children’s understandings on race as well as how they came to that understanding. This is an 8 part series full of discoveries researchers make, race-related experiments with children as well as interviews, reactions of parents to their children’s perceptions on race, etc. Anderson Cooper’s overall coverage is brilliant and opens up the eyes of those who chose to watch it.