Color Blind vs Color Brave

There are two Views on Race and Kids

Common “Color-Blind” Views*

What is race?

What is racism?

What is antiracism?

What do children think about race?

•  Race is about biological, physical, and cultural differences.

•  Race is important only because we keep talking about it.

•  Race is about discrimination, inequality, hatred, reverse racism, old wounds that never heal – ugly, hard stuff.

•  Racism is mainly about personal biases, attitudes, and behaviors.

•  Racist people (“racists”) commit racism through their intentional choices of prejudicial words and discriminatory behaviors.

•  Racism will end when people stop holding racist beliefs and stop engaging in racist actions.

•  A person is antiracist if they have little or no bias against people of other races.

•  When it comes to race, children are blank slates; they do not notice or make

judgments about race unless adults talk about it first.

•  Talking about race and racism with young children is developmentally inappropriate and can cause harmful emotions like guilt, fear, distrust, and confusion.

Our Color-Brave View**

•  Race is about the values, judgments, and meanings we associate with physical and 

cultural differences.

•  Ideas about race shape a wide range of crucial outcomes for people, families, communities, and for our society.

•  Race is about our experiences as people and community members. The story of race is full of pain, hardship, and injustice, but also of joy, pride, solidarity, and resilience.

•  Racism is mainly about the ways that past and present injustices shape our present reality, affecting people in areas that include housing, education, health, wealth, criminal

justice, interpersonal relationships, and more.

•  We can all behave in ways that perpetuate racism, often without meaning to do so.

•  Racism will end when we work together to change the social systems and structures that

maintain racial injustice.

•  Being antiracist is about reflecting on our own attitudes and biases, working to do   better, and supporting policies and actions that promote equity and justice.

•  Just like in other areas of development, children are little scientists when it comes to race; they notice and assign meaning to differences based on patterns they observe around them. This is true whether or not adults explicitly acknowledge and talk about race.

•  Talking about race and racism with young children helps them develop healthy racial

identities, skills and empathy for cross-racial relationships, and critical thinking about race.

“Color-Blind” or Color-Brave”? Two Views on Race and Kids

Common “Color-Blind” Views

How do children learn about race? What role do caregivers play in children’s racial learning? How can we move toward the future?

•  Children’s beliefs and attitudes about race reflect what their parents and other adults tell them.

•  Children become racially biased when they hear adults, especially parents, say prejudicial things and see them act in discriminatory ways toward other-race people.

•  Caregivers’ role is to preserve children’s innocence and protect them from 

harmful ideas about race.

•  If caregivers do talk about race, we can keep children from being biased by emphasizing that we’re all equal in our humanity and stressing the importance of treating everyone the same regardless of skin color.

•  When children express curiosity about race, it is best simply to remind them

that we are all the same.

•  Racism is no longer a big problem.

•  By teaching children to love everyone equally and ignoring race, we can make it – and all the ugliness associated with it – disappear.

Our Color-Brave View*

•  Parents and other caregivers are important sources of messages about race. So are peers, teachers and schools, neighborhoods, media, and more.

•  Children develop biases and anxieties about race when adults are silent about race and do not actively help them make sense of it.

•  Caregivers are sources of information about race and can be guides who actively

help children process information about race from other sources.

•  Caregiver practices can both minimize the

biases that children develop and help them.

become actively anti-racist.

•  Caregivers can respond to children’s curiosity about race and be proactive and intentional about prompting race conversations.

•  Racism continues to impact all our lives in countless ways.

•  Only by talking honestly about race can we raise a generation of children who are

thoughtful, informed, and brave enough to help create a truly equitable, multiracial society.