child of our time

[yingers74]

did anyone watch this programme? i was shocked at the experiment where they had four pictures of childen, each of a different race, white, black, asian, oriental and asked each child which child is good, would you like to be friends with, is naughty, mean etc. the majority of children regardless of race, thought the white child was nice, wanted to be friends with etc and the others were mean etc. This was because they had at the age of 4/5 picked up the negative messages within our society/media towards non-whites. i was shocked!

Hi doll. There was a whole discussion about it on Weds. here it is

My mum saw this and told me about it, and to be honest I thought she was exaggerating, or had got it wrong. It is worrying that children are still getting these messages from society in this day and age, despite the messages being given by their parents.

Read the other thread, Mars, but I wanted to post about how we make our kids proud to be who they are? It really shocked me, that experiment, tho some more perceptive (than me) MNers have questioned the 'science' of it. Especially the person who said maybe the kids were trying to conciously or unconciously please the (white) researcher by choosing the white kids over the black ones.
But it still left me feeling guilty and that I should do more with my two about half their genetic heritage. Dp won't do much, tho theoretically he's into it. I am white as are the vast majority of my friends and the kids we know. They do know their dad's family but not as well as they do mine as they live on the other side of London. Dd is 3 and ds is 16 months, and so far I don't think either is particularly aware of their colour - or more importantly, what it means. Does anyone have any ideas on how to help them feel that being mixed race is wonderful?

Hi Cha.
As I said on the other thread, I wonder how many of the kids they showed giving such one-track responses actually live in very mixed areas. For us, at least half of DS's friends have mixed parentage, so I am sure he sees it as completely normal. I make sure that DS's books and videos cover a whole range of brilliant characters from a range of backgrounds, and we have made a point of taking him out for nice Diwali events, sourcing storybooks from the Hindhu half of his family, etc etc. Did you take DD to the Whippersnappers Xmas show? And Talawa have a caribbean panto, I think, and look out for some good caribbean-influenced children's shows at Half Moon, Lyric Hammersmith etc - lots have shows for 3 and up.
We just try for a balanced and inclusive range of activities. There is a gorgeous range of storybooks in Tales on Half Moon Lane by Trisha Cooke- one is called 'Full, full, full of love' - but they are about a west-indian family rather than mixed.
And can you still get John Agards's book 'I din do nuttin''

tah mars, will take a look! Am getting the book from amazon. i have been following this show since it first started, weird, I feel like I know these children and there parents.

My ds (5yrs) is proud of who he is and he knows he has a bit of me who is black and a bit of daddy who is white and he is a beautiful beige colour like his baby brother. But the majority of children he plays with in his class are white and he has two mixed race friends and three asian. God knows what he would have picked, but I feel he too would have picked the white child for "who he would like to play with the most " because that is the majority of his friends. Even though he has a mixture. I think it is who the childrens play with the most. The other little black boy who was the only one who picked the black child in very single question goes to a prodominately (sorry dodgy spelling!) black nursery and has only black friends. Still found it fasinating as I too have watched since the children were born as they were all born (I think) in the same month as my ds.