Discussing Racial Differences with Your Child

The world is a colorful place full of the people of all different races and colors. When children begin to notice these differences between themselves and the people around them, questions may arise. How a parent answers to questions will affect the attitudes of the children toward different races for their entire lives.

Discussing racial differences with your children is not a matter of a onetime speech. Some parents may be inclined to simply tell their children that everyone is different and everyone is okay and leave it at that. This may give the children the false impression that it is not allowable to talk about the racial differences between people. This should be furthest from the truth. Explaining diversity and enjoying the differences that make us all unique can be a very positive experience for a child.

Children usually first ask questions about racial differences when they come in contact with a person of another race. Some common queries may include, "Why does she look different?" or even "What's wrong with her skin?"

There are various ways to answer these questions to foster no negative feelings about racial differences between people. First of all, point out to your child that every person has a different skin tone, hair color, and shape of facial features. No one on earth, with the possibly exception of indentical twins, looks the same. Explain that different races of people often have different appearances because of where they come from in the world originaly. Explain what diversity means as you tell your child that everyone is different.

Racial diversity should be talked about in a manner that creates no animosity toward any race. Never use bad words to describe other races, or make stereotypical generalization or make racial jokes. Instead, explore the differences in culture and race as an exciting learning experience with your child. Getting together with friends of another race to host culture nights can be a fun and educational way to learn about racial differences.

Above all else, always answer your childrn'es questions about racial diversity honestly and without any feelings of hatred toward other races. The best way to discuss these topics of interest for the whole world is to remind your child that we all belong to the human race, and any differences we may see or experience only serve to make the world we live on that much more exciting.