Can kids be racist?

[Jayson]

This is something that happened to my niece a few months ago. She is white/black. The neighbor kid has a trampalyin(bad spelling I know) and she wanted to play on it. The neigbor kid who I think is the same or similiar age, which would be 6 or 7, said black people can't play on them. The kid then said she/he(I forget which) that she/he was just joking.

If a adult did something like this then it would oviously be racism but can a kid be racist? Can a kid even comprehend what those type of words mean?


Jason

 

[Kirk's_Tights]

If a kid that young says something like that, I would look at the parents first. The kid had to get that kind of thinking from somewhere. Maybe they never said it themselves but maybe they allow him/her to watch TV programs she/he shouldn't watch and she/he may have picked it up from there.


Kids will be kids and I highly doubt a kid that age even knows the meaning of racism.

 

[eastman23]

Oh, there's no age limit to racism, though Kirk's Tights is right, it had to be influenced (consciously or subconsciously) by parents.

This recent case in Winnipeg definitely falls under the category of conscious influence.

 

[Aurian]

The kids get their behavior from other people around them.

grrr....

 

[Miss Chicken]

I think it is something that has to be taught.

Once I was looking at a movie when my son woke up and came quietly came in the loungeroom. I didn't realise he was there at first and he ended up watching a scene where black people were attacked on one of the freedom buses. The scene upset my son quite a nit so I turned the Tv off and talked to him about it. After I explained a little about racism I asked him if he knew any black people. At first he said no, but than he thought some more and asked me if our next door neighbour, Marty was black. I said yes, Marty, was. My son said "I didn't know that".

Up to that point my son was oblivious to skin colour and I think most young children are.

 

[Shikarnov]

While racism is possibly learned behavior, I don't see it as necessarily that way. As a child, I was mocked and ridiculed horribly for just about anything that made me different -- whether it was my weight, my unusual name, a love of Star Trek, etc.

Whatever kids can latch onto, they will.

 

[jamestyler]

^ It's true. I was once ridiculed in high school for having a short fuse. I punched the guy. That'll learn him...

...theres an innocence to it, but that doesn't make it any better and as they age the innocence fades and they turn into a bit of a teenage cock. It's not just racism, it's anything from another kid being overweight to using 'gay' to describe something as bad. As long as their parents aren't assholes and they learn the whole right/wrong schtick, the kids will grow out of it.

 

[sidious618]

I remember when my sister was younger she got British confused with Jewish. She was watching a kids history show on the reovlutionary war and started saying, "The Jewish are coming! The Jewish are coming!"

 

[Kestra]

Yeah, kids pick up on cues from the people around them. Or just don't like differences.

I remember in third grade, a girl had just moved into town and was in my class. One of the first things she said to me was "I've never seen a black person before." I told her I was brown. We ended up becoming best friends.

Has anyone ever known a pet to be racist? I swear one of my sister's dogs is.

 

[sidious618]

Yeah, kids pick up on cues from the people around them. Or just don't like differences.

I remember in third grade, a girl had just moved into town and was in my class. One of the first things she said to me was "I've never seen a black person before." I told her I was brown. We ended up becoming best friends.

Has anyone ever known a pet to be racist? I swear one of my sister's dogs is.

They had an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry had a racist dog. The dog eventually learned to like black people but soon became homophobic.

 

[JiNX-01]

... After I explained a little about racism I asked him if he knew any black people. At first he said no, but than he thought some more and asked me if our next door neighbour, Marty was black. I said yes, Marty, was. My son said "I didn't know that".

Up to that point my son was oblivious to skin colour and I think most young children are.

You've done a magnificient job.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Kids have no clue about racism. When I was at BMC, my old secretary brought her son in just about every day for his first three years because she couldn't afford day care. He grew up calling me "Uncle Rick" and had no idea society considered us somehow different. Most of the rest of our service was Black, Hispanic and Asian, and to him they were all "Auntie This" and "Auntie That." And he's the nicest kid you could possibly imagine; it's going to be quite a jolt for him when he first encounters racism.

 

[Ethros]

Instantly sprung to mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiEKla_Awws

Excellent film

 

[RandyS]

Yes, kids can be racist, but it's a learned behavior. Racism is not something we are born with, it has to be taught.

For example, when I was a kid, I was told by my grandparents that black people were inferior. It wasn't until I actually met one that I learned this wasn't the case. Now, don't misunderstand, my grandparents were kind, loving people, and when they came in contact with black people, they treated them politely, but, they also treated them as second class citizens. I can't really blame them, they lived in the 1950's and 1960's when the civil rights stuff was going on.

Like I said, learned behavior.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

The kids get their behavior from other people around them.

grrr....

Indeed. So always look at the parents first.

 

[sidious618]

Instantly sprung to mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiEKla_Awws

Excellent film

 

[Marie1]

Yes they can. Dealt with it from elementary school... part of the problem is people don't want to believe their kids can do/think/say anything bad, so it "isn't happening" and they don't ever attempt to deal with. Not always the case of course... had one kid change his mind, but not all...

 

[Michael Chris]

Instantly sprung to mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiEKla_Awws

Excellent film

Holy crap that's horrible. Even more horrible are the comments.

 

[Daneel]

Up to that point my son was oblivious to skin colour and I think most young children are.

I don't think I'd quite say oblivious. I remember when I was a kid, my best friend was half-black/half-white, and his older sister would sometimes come to babysit my sister and I. The first time she did, my sister asked her, "Why do you have mud on your face?" My friend's sister thought that was cute and funny, and sometimes spoke about it throughout the subsequent years (much to my sister's eventual chagrin -- and embarrassment).

But I do think that race often isn't really an issue with young children -- I certainly never saw any hint of it when I was in elementary school. And it's not like kids won't take every opportunity they can to make fun of someone for being different, i.e. insulting the fat kid or the nerdy kid (both of which usually happened to be me ). Race never seemed to be a factor, however. When I got to high school though, I detected subtle (and on rare occasions, not so subtle) racist attitudes amongst some people, and it was more common to see people hanging out with others of their own race more than in mixed groups. It's sad, really -- sometimes I miss the racial harmony that came with the innocence of childhood. I'm not saying I find racism all that prevalent nowadays, but there's no denying it's often present on some level, even if only in the lack of diversity I see in certain groups and places.

I'm sure there are some children who display racist attitudes, though, and in such cases, I would definitely suggest it's learned behaviour, most likely from the parents. Fortunately, that doesn't always happen; in fact, some children will actively choose to reject their parents' attitudes when they become old enough to understand it -- my parents for instance, are definitely non-racist, even though three of my grandparents have been. Sure, that doesn't always happen, but with racism becoming far less socially acceptable over the past few decades, I prefer to hope that more children will choose not to follow in the prejudicial footsteps of some of the people around them.

 

[Marie1]

^Good points.
I met a kid once when I was little who didn't want to be near me b/c she was white and thought I was "dirty." You'd think she'd never seen someone who wasn't white before. o.0