Ethnic-Racial Socialization in Early Childhood: The Implications of Color-Consciousness and Colorblindness for Prejudice Development

Abstract

A student of mine who had darker skin was being told by others that they didn’t want to play with him because of his ‘weird skin.’ I wasn’t sure where this was stemming from, so the next day I read a book that had different children in it with different color skin who were talking about their skin. Then we had a small discussion about every- one’s skin in the room and what color it is. We asked and answered questions like: Why is our skin different? How is our skin the same? Did we get to pick the color of our skin? Does the color of our skin matter while playing and making friends? – a preschool teacher.