Quote From: ryantamyI need some help with my 5 year old son. I am in the military. The town we moved to is all white and rather racist. My son has already come home from kindergarten asking why God made black people and that their color skin hurts his eyes. I am horrified. He only has one black boy in his class. His 2nd day care provider in Florida was black and her son Zoin was his best friend. I tried to talk to him about how he would feel if someone didn't like him because he has blue eyes. I pointed out that is nephew has brown eyes, and so on. I have tried to find books that have multi racial kids in the stories. But I can't find any books on overcoming this, or kids stories. I am planning on getting a globe for him for Christmas so we can talk about cultures. I will be moving him to the on base school for first grade which has a higher cultural mix. I try to watch shows like Medgar Evars, Mississippi Burning. He saw some of "A time to kill" and he wanted to know why the people were having fights in front of the courthouse. I am trying to approach it subtly. Does anyone have any other ideas. We were planning on retiring here but now we are planning on moving back to Ohio because of the school. Alexander is a surving twin. His brother Nicholas died from Air Force negligence, I know Alex did not survive to become a racial bigot.
I applaud your efforts to teach your son about differences in people, but a 5 year old cannot comprehend Mississippi Burning, and should not be viewing "A Time to Kill" due to the violence & subject matter (it is a great movie for adults!). I have taught 5 year olds for the past 6 years in Sunday School. If you are churchgoers, the easiest explanation would be that God created all people, and He knew them before they were born. We all look the same on the inside, but God knew the world would be a boring place if everyone looked alike on the outside, so He created each person to be beautiful & special in his or her own way, and He wanted Alex to have blue eyes and so on... Please don't think that you should move because of this, you actually have a wonderful opportunity to teach your son about the differences in others that he will certainly face when he grow up. Your public library will have loads of books about different children. I encourage you to pick some out that show other races & cultures in a positive light. This will help him to understand that just because he sees differences in others, those differences aren't bad. Some good titles include, "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats & "Amazing Grace" by Mary Hoffman. If he likes Dora & Diego (TV Cartoons), you could gently explain that they are Latino, and maybe discuss the food they may eat. (Many children love Mexican food!) Best wishes!
