How can I teach my young daughter that racism is wrong?
Ok, so yesterday I took my 5-year old daughter (who is white) out to the toy store to buy a new doll.
When we got to the aisle with all of the dolls, I asked her which one she liked. She went straight for a white Barbie doll and said “this one”. This instantly made me feel uneasy. She obviously didn’t pick the African-American doll because it is black. I took one of the African-American Barbie dolls off the self, and said “how about this one instead?”, but she declined.
I ended up buying the African-American Barbie doll instead, regardless. She was unhappy, but I explained to her how we need diversity to rebalance the United States after years of white oppression towards African-Americans. I told her that what she did was racist and wrong. She didn’t understand and started crying. Now I feel like the bad guy. How can I teach my daughter to be colorblind and not judge people by race?
I realize that this question was asked tongue-in-cheek, but I’m going to answer anyway:
You don’t.
That’s right, the answer to “how do I teach my child not be racist” is, “you don’t teach them that.”
Racism is a learned behavior. If you don’t teach them racism, then your job is done. Do not even acknowledge the concept of race outside of explaining that skin comes in different colors just like apples and crayons, and the kid will never learn to be racist thereby accomplishing your goal.
Teaching someone how not to be racist is like teaching someone how not to read.
