Comments on: Being politically correct in raising your children

By: Damaria Senne

Damaria Senne — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:41:45 +0000

You’re right – kids see colour ( how can they not), it just doesn’t make a difference, unless they learn from us that it should. I also think that it’s very important that we as parents communicate our position regarding colour to our kids, because the other kids at school pick up very strong views from their parents. And in the absence of parental guidance, you child may be confused about race relations because they’re getting some negative feedback from friends at school.
I don’t know if you remember that girl who was abducted, raped and killed in Pretoria ( name escapes me right now), and there was a very visible anti- violence campaign where people wore pink T-shirts and jeans? Anyway, Baby, who was around 9 or 10 at the time, came home one day and complained that South Africans were making a big hoohaa about a White child being killed, but they say nothing when a Black child is being killed. You can imagine how shocked I was, because that kind of talk is way out of line in our home. And, a big branch of our family is actually White, so in general she’s very well adjusted about race and us being multi-cultural. So I probed and found out that there were a couple of bigger kids who were spouting the “woe is Black people” crap and she was just repeating what she heard. Anyhoo, that issue was dealt with speedily, but it did emphasise how important it is for me for me to talk to Baby about race relations in South Africa.

By: Diane

Diane — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:44:10 +0000

My 4 yo son pointed out the colour differences to me the other day and I was shocked as we never refer to people by colour. I guess it was something he picked up at his new pre-school. I knew it was coming. I simply told him that while people looked different on the outside, we were all the same on the inside. As time goes on I do plan to teach him the cultural differences between the various races but I want him to retain his childhood view that it makes no difference.

By: Beccy

Beccy — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:30:11 +0000

My 4 year old has just started drawing brown-skinned “Sotho people” and blond and blue-eyed “yellow curly-haired people”. But it was interesting that she had to ask what colour my husband’s cousin was, before drawing a picture of her on a card. She also knows that most poor people are “brown” but recently observed that “not all brown people are poor”.