Regular poster, name-changing out of embarrassment.
We are a white family. DS is 4 and a half. We live in a pretty ethnically monolithic environment (ie mostly white), and don't have many non-white friends. Over the last couple of months, DS has begun to make some comments that are making my head spin a bit.
For example: a selection of photos of young children in CBeebies magazine. DS (with no prompting): 'I like this one, and this one, and this one [pointing to the white children], but not this one [pointing to the black child].'
I deliberately haven't responded to this sort of thing - it's only happened once of twice - hoping that if I didn't react, and didn't 'give' him the language to describe enthnicity, he wouldn't go further with the conceptualization. However, today at the park he had the following conversation with DP:
[DP] Do you like girls then?
[DS] Yes, I like all girls the same. But I don't like the brown ones.'
I'm getting a bit worried about this now. We are friends with two non-white families, and I'm really anxious that he is going to say something in front of them. OTOH, I know that DS is an emotional sponge, and might well be picking up on my anxiety and playing me a bit.
What to do? Ignore? Have a bit of a chat? He starts school in September and I'd hate him to say this sort of thing there. Are there any good books?
God, I'm such a wet liberal, this is one of my worst nightmares...
Thank you if you have got this far!