Having kids is something that not till recently I have discovered I wanted. I never thought about how the smallest factors, such as cartoons, can impact their persona greatly. For example, when Professor Ermitte showed the whole class a picture of her adorable daughter and then told us a story about how when she told her daughter to pick the pretty doll she picked the blonde one over the brunette. This complete shocked me because what has made this young girl think that the blond one is the pretty one? Another thing that I never thought could be a problem would be books. In a book that professor Eremite showed us that she took away from her daughter illustrated the stereotype African Americans with their tribe outwear as they played …show more content…
How do we approach kids about racism? I don’t know about you but I don’t want my kids to grow up and become racist people. How do we avoid this happening? What can I do as a parent? In my opinion it all comes down to social identity development. How did this child values influenced him/her on his/ her identity development? Trying to raise your child to be colorblind could be a great first step. Don’t limit this child to only socializing with kids of his race. If you do this, it can really restrict a child and make them closeminded in the future when he starts being exposed to other races. Instead make playdates with kids of all races. Enroll him/her into a diverse school, raise him/her in a diverse neighborhood. You can do all these things to your kid, but taking with them is key. Teach them that no one is any less, and to treat everyone equally. Pay attention to what your children are watching on television. Restrict all the programs with racial stereotypes, such as Speedy Gonzalez. You see, before the kid socially identify their self they have to go through all the smaller steps first. Educate them correctly before they start the social identity development steps.
It can be difficult to approach children with the subjects of race and racism, after all they are young and might not fully understand. This class has helped me with realize all the stereotypes that I have grown up with. Seeing these shows have made me believe that its ok to act and believe these stereotypes. Since I do want to have kids in the future I know that we must introduce them and explain to them what racism is. Expose them to different cultures to prevent racism so that when their social identity begins developing, they are open and accepting