How Children Learn About Race

At Cha Cha Mamma, we envision a world where all women have access to reliable, easy-to-understand information regarding their own health and the health of their children. Every woman deserves to have this opportunity no matter the color of her skin, her religion, her sexual orientation, or any other factor. Every woman is unstoppable, and every woman is worthy.  

It is our obligation as human beings to do better...to be better. It is up to parents to properly educate themselves and their children in order to put an end to racism. Let's work together to change the conversation about racism in the world today, and use our knowledge to grow our world into a better, more accepting place for generations to come.  

Though many find the topic of racism to be inappropriate to discuss with children, many young black children not only know everything there is to know about racism, but often look it in the eye on a daily basis. It is important to know how children learn about race, and at what ages, in order to know how best to educate them. The research may surprise you.  

In her incredible 2009 paper, Erin Winkler, Ph.D, pointed out that when young children talk about race, this is how their comments are usually handled: 

 1. They are dismissed: Parents may say, “She doesn’t know what she’s saying.” 

2.  They are blamed on adults:  Parents may say, “She must have heard that from someone."  

3.  They are indirectly addressed as bad behavior: Parents may say: “We don’t say things like that because it hurts people’s feelings.” 

*Winkler goes on to say that, based on psychological research, there are much better ways to address this.  

Here is a general timeline of the way in which your baby learns about race:  

• 0-3 months: When babies are born, they look at all faces the same way, but at 3 months, they start to become more interested in faces that are the same race as their caregivers (Kelly et al., 2005).  

• 3-6 months: In a study that looked at about 200 black and white children, they found that infants are able to nonverbally categorize people by race and gender as early as 6 months. The infants  in this study, looked significantly longer at an unfamiliar face of a different race than they did at an unfamiliar face of the same race (Katz & Kofkin, 1997) .  

• 24-30 months: Toddlers as young as 24 months may use race to reason about people’s behaviors (Hirschfeld, 2008).  By 30 months, children may use race as a basis of who to play with (Katz & Kofkin, 1997).  

• 4-5 yrs. : Many children use racial prejudice (Aboud, 2008). At this age as well, many children also have their own racial biases that may not have been learned from the adults in their lives (Aboud, 2008; Hirschfeld, 2008; Katz, 2003; Patterson & Bigler, 2006).  

 Many studies have shown that children’s racial beliefs are not significantly related to those of their parents (Hirschfeld, 2008; Katz, 2003; Patterson & Bigler, 2006). In fact, discriminating between races seems to develop as early as 3 months of age. That being said, it is still up to parents to educate themselves about racism, to educate their children about racism, and to foster a positive and accepting environment.   

*Reading books to your children from a young age is a great way to teach them the importance of acceptance. Here are some incredible books for you to read to your children!