Ds has been going to nursery for 2 mornings a week for about 6 months (he is 2y 8m). It is a mixed nursery, in terms of ethnicity, in a mixed area. We are white and have friends of different ethnicities.
A couple of weeks ago Ds described a Black African girl as a "chocolate girl" and I though that it was just him trying to understand different skin colours. A Black friend was a bit more concerned as she had heard this in the context of racist bullying before. Anyway, we let it rest as obviously I don't think my son is going to join the BNP just yet, or the nursery is a recruitment centre.
Anyway, fast forward to yesterday when ds described a Japanese neighbour as having a 'yellow' face. We've played a game since then of me asking colours of faces and he's saying 'chocolate' for Black African / African Caribbean people, 'yellow' for South Asian and 'white' for white.
I am a bit nonplussed because I expected him to say 'pink' or 'brown' for skin colour (as it's a bit much asking him to grasp the political complexity of Black and White) and the terms he's using sound as if they might be something another child (or god forbid another adult) might be using. If he has learned these terms anywhere, then it's nursery, as no-one we know would use them.
So my question is, has anyone elses children spontaneously developed these sorts of terms, or is it coming from nursery and I'll need to alert them to it?