Please read this article before continuing.

I really want to just yell, "Discuss!"
Because I just spent an hour and a half talking about Racism and Affirmative Action already.
However that is frowned upon here.

So here is what I think.

I think it is absolutely fascinating that so many families just dropped out when they were told to actually talk to their children in more specific terms.
And how even more who stayed int the study, didn't really talk about it like they should have. But the families who DID do as they were supposed to, showed a dramatic improvement.
It really does say something about the importance of family and the health of a society, yes?

Spoons:
Racist CHILDREN?!
Do you think racism still heavily influences our society?
Would you talk to your kids about racism?
Are you a racist, ever? (Even just a little?)
Did your parents ever bring up race?
May add more later, k?

Wow, that was a long article. I read the whole thing though, it was very interesting. This comes as no surprise to me though, that children notice race. I know because as a child, I noticed race. And I know the other children noticed race too, it was actually a very big deal at school. Growing up, I actually had two different experiences with race. I'm white (actually half white, half Hispanic, but being Hispanic never came into play). One experience was a positive one; my best friends at home, who were my neighbors, were black. We didn't attend the same school. So they were my friends at home, but not at school. My experiences at school were negative. I went to a predominately black school, the black children far outnumbered the white children. For a very long time I had no knowledge that black people were "minorities" and that there are actually more whites than blacks. The black kids for the most part treated me horribly. I remember a specific incident, where a black boy would say to me that I was a racist because I was white. So being white automatically meant I was this evil racist person. It made me so mad. That wasn't the worst if it though. I was harassed at school everyday. The black kids spit at me and once one even punched me. To be fair, there were some asshole white kids too. But I know some of these black kids were doing it because of race. Gender was a slight issue too, boys were always jerks. I remember at least two or three years in a row, I was one of two white girls in the entire class. By default, the other white girl would always become my friend and we would stick together. No one else would be friends with us.

I remember another incident, one that didn't involve me. There was a Chinese boy in the class one year, and he got a lot of shit from these kids too. One time he left his math book at home and his mother brought it to school and stood there talking to the teacher, explaining what happened. She had a thick accent. The same black boy who had accused me of being a racist simply because of my skin color, went around the classroom shouting things like "ching chang chong" the whole time the parent and teacher were talking. I remember this incident I think mainly because I was relieved that they were focusing on making fun of someone else and not me.

I really can't remember if my parents said much about race to me at all. It wouldn't have mattered if they did, I drew my own conclusions from these experiences. I do think my mom started complaining about how they were acting and what behavior problems they were as I grew older and it got worse and worse. But I was thinking the same things anyway. I knew not to repeat what she said. She finally took me out of that school. I think if I'd been asked questions like in that article as a kid, I probably would have answered something like "a lot" or "some" white people are nice and "not many" black people are nice, based on what went on at school.

As far as am I racist? I try not to be. What happened in elementary school did leave me feeling bitter, and the fact that my black friends pretty much stopped being my friends in middle school didn't help a lot either. But I have known nice black people since then and I know they aren't all like the people at that school. I'm willing to be friends with anyone, I don't care what race they are. But they have to be nice and willing to be friends with me as well. Most of the time friends have to approach me first. My close friends are all white. It just happened that way. My boyfriend is Asian, and to be honest, I don't know a whole lot of black people.

Hrm.

Children notice race, I think, because they get used to seeing one kind of skin color and facial features when they're babies and toddlers. Then, as they get more exposure to the world, they see the differences between what they're used to (family members) and what they're not used to (strangers of another race).
Just for instance: When I was born, everyone in my family on both sides had dark hair. I was so used to this that I cried whenever I saw anyone with light hair, be it blonde or white.
It wasn't about skin color for me: it was hair color. Blonde or white was different to me.

As for personal experiences, I was the one being picked on, being the only Asian kid in a white school. This one boy picked on me so much one afternoon that it made me cry.
The most ignorant thing I've ever experienced?
It was after 9/11, and I was helping out at Mom's shop one day. I was sitting at the counter in the front, where the windows went from floor to ceiling.
These boys rode up on their bikes, stopped in front of the windows, and yelled in at me, "Go home to Afghanistan!!" "Go home where you belong!"
Ugh, it was the most moronic thing. I mean, I know Asians tend to look the same to most other people, but really? How do you mistake an Asian for an Afghan?

Would I talk to my kids about race? Not unless someone else made it an issue. I think the only way we can really rule out racism at all is to just not make it important. I really believe that we're long past the point where restitution is necessary, and any attempt to claim restitution is only harmful to the one who's asking for it. I can well understand how affirmative action is having a negative effect on white people. Coming from a minority view point, I'd rather be hired or given a scholarship because I've earned it, not because of my ethnic background, and if a white person gets hired or gets a scholarship instead of me, because he/she earned it, that's great.

At the same time, though, while I strongly believe that we should ignore someone's skin color and/or facial features (because Asians are NOT yellow-skinned), I also believe that it's very important to any race to retain the knowledge of our individual cultures and values, and to know what it means to be of a certain background.
This I will gladly teach my children when I have them, and I will emphasize respect for other cultures, because even in the modern age - especially in the modern age - we need to understand how our ancient cultures influenced each other.

Without one another, we would not be who we are today.

Sheesh, that was long - I'll never get to bed at this rate. :XD
I was really shocked when those five families just dropped out. I think they just expected their children to somehow get it though, as was mentioned later in the article, how parents were very vague about teaching their children - you know, "everyone's equal" and all that.
I disagree about it saying much about the importance of family - it wouldnt've mattered WHO taught the children about race so long as it was done at an age where they could accept it. Having it presented by someone they trust just gives the information better odds of computing.

Yeah, racism still influences our society very heavily. I used to live in southern Missouri in a place where the population was 2,000 people. All of my friends lived anywhere between 5 to 20 miles from my house. Most kids lived out in the country on dirt roads. In the whole high school, for the two years I spent there, there was ONE black kid. *One*. There were no Asians, and just one black kid. Not only that, but around the time of the elections, my friend was an Obama supporter. Now, this was bold itself, because it was a very very conservative town. I knew people who wouldn't vote for Obama for a variety of reasons - he supported abortion and abortion is murder (my school librarian's reason). His position on gun control was so skewed by word-of-mouth that people said he planned to outlaw guns. Children on my school bus referred to him as a certain Middle Eastern racial slur that I'm not rude enough to say. My own grandmother wouldn't vote for him because she'd never vote for "a man with purple lips". But back to my friend. He taped a picture of Obama on his jacket on election day, and some country kid, while walking by him, reached out and ripped the picture right off his jacket. Note that my friend had NO IDEA who the guy was or anything. He just did it. So yes, from my experience, racism still influences society heavily in some places. May I say though that in high schools on U.S. military installations, there's self-created segregation to some degree but there are interracial relationships and it's acceptable. Again, this is all in my experience.

I don't plan to have kids, but if I did, I'd discuss racism with them. They need to know about it.

Admittedly, I am a little racist I suppose? More in a self-segregation way. Only towards blacks though, and it's from the cultural differences. That's not to say I wouldn't be friends with a black person if they presented themselves in a way where I felt that I could. Just... in my experience, black people have always equaled gangsters with maybe one or two exceptions. But not even regarding race, gangsters aren't my type of crowd to begin with. I don't consider blacks inferior, I just consider them to not be my type of people 99% of the time.

My parents never mentioned race once. However, my best friend in 2nd and 3rd grade was black. Then I moved away. I had one black friend after that in middle school. Then I moved again, and I never met any more that I wanted to talk to.

I'd say more about Asians, but I've known more black people throughout life than I have Asian people. And I'm sorry if my post sounds totally racist or something - I'm seriously, seriously not trying to be. It's just my take on the issue.

o wow. well hell, y wouldnt children notice race? they're kids, not dogs. u can tell white from black and facial features and such(and no, you're right, asian's dont have yellow skin) but I do believe that racism still heavily influences our society. most definitely. i think it's just switched focus for awhile. instead of it being mostly white men, i think it's turned to mostly black men. sure, people will cry rodney king and such. but look at our public schools. i can guarantee that unless you went to the deep country in the south where there's less than 30 or so black kids, u will almost always see the black kids picking on the white kids, and they still have the nerve to call us racist. i should know, a black kid once called my black bus driver a "big black grape ape", and the bus driver tried to pin it on me cuz he didnt see the kid say it, the kid in question's grandfather was a friend of his, and i was white. he tried to get me exspelled. and im sorry, affirmative action is just making it worse for everyone(that probably has no place right there in this part but i felt it so i put it there). we need to stop hiring people just to fill a racial quota and start hiring the people who can best do the job. but i would be glad to talk to my kids about race. i do believe that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, but not if they cant do the same for u. and am i racist? ever? yea, sometimes i might be. im sorry. i had bad experiences in my childhood and it affected me. do i consider myself racist? no. not at all. i have alot of black friends that i wouldnt' harm for all the tea in china. and i have multiple friends from the middle east, jamaica, egypt, and asia. so take it as u well, but racism is still very much alive.

I am white, female, in my senior year of high school, live in southern Alabama, and I do not believe in race. So, now that you know where I'm coming from.

"That leads to the question that everyone wonders but rarely dares to ask. If "black pride" is good for African-American children, where does that leave white children? It's horrifying to imagine kids being "proud to be white." Yet many scholars argue that's exactly what children's brains are already computing. Just as minority children are aware that they belong to an ethnic group with less status and wealth, most white children naturally decipher that they belong to the race that has more power, wealth, and control in society; this provides security, if not confidence. So a pride message would not just be abhorrent—it'd be redundant."

I really don't agree with that at all. During my entire life (minus about 2 years in a catholic preschool) I went to predominately black schools. Ever since I was young I've been mistreated for being white. As such, I had no clue that my race supposedly "had more power, wealth, and control in society." All through my life, I have been taught through the message of acceptance not to have pride that I am white. When I was in elementary school, I still believed there were different races. During black history month, I would always feel that it was unfair the the black kids got to celebrate their heritage and have assemblies, but I couldn't. I said this out loud once at a table with a black boy and girl and a white boy, the black girl told the teacher that I was being racist. Without listening to my side of the story, I got sent to In School Suspension for two days and heavily reprimanded by my white principal. Years earlier when I was in kindergarten, I was taught my first lesson about race by a black girl with a belt. Until then I had categorized other kids as 'mean' and 'nice' based on how they treated me. I was sitting by myself on the bus since it was my first day at the new school (which happened to be 100% black excluding myself) and I had yet to make friends. The black girl accused me of thinking I was better than her because I was white, she then proceeded to hit me repeatedly with her belt until the bus driver stopped the bus and came back to help me. The girl took my glasses and returned to her seat. The four days that followed, I was beaten up every day while teachers would watch a few minutes before helping me. The woman that worked in the cafeteria one day asked me what I wanted and when I told her she told me that little white girls couldn't have that. Needless to say, my parents transferred me out of that school after that one week, realizing it wouldn't get better. Believe me, I am not creative enough to make that stuff up and have absolutely no reason to lie.

I don't believe there is such a thing as race. There is really no significant genetic difference between a black person and a white person. That is, if you cut a black person and a white person open and look inside, you'll see the same everything. Though, I don't condone cutting people open for no good reason. I just don't think race exists. It's all just trifles.

Affirmative Action was a good idea, but it has far outstayed it's usefulness. My mother, a white woman, has been unemployed for nearly 2 years now, because the entire department in the company she used to work was eliminated. She gets at least 3 interviews a week, but never gets a job even though she is qualified. I believe this is because her resume makes her appear black. She graduated from a high school that was 90% black and she went to a traditionally black college on a minority scholarship, she also has a name that 'sounds black'. I know 2 unrelated black families in my city with her last name in my city (it's not my last name, though, divorce/remarriage). And incidents of affirmative action being used to prevent companies from hiring whites over black who are less qualified have been in the news so much. I believe that affirmative action is reverse discrimination.

I have another incident that I'd like to bring up. I was sitting in class one day, completely zoned out reading a book, and the words 'this school is so racist' brings me to attention. A black boy a few rows down is talking with a white substitute teacher. He claimed that the white kids have more opportunities than he does because he's black. This pissed me off. I stood up and said: "We have the exact same classes, books, and teachers. We have the SAME opportunities. Just because YOU make a bad grade doesn't give you the right to complain. Maybe if you didn't talk all the time, you'd be making better grades. Now SHUT UP."
He looked completely stunned, like I had slapped him in the face. He sat down and started talking with his friends about what a bitch I was and I continued reading my book. But I find that a lot of black kids at my school seem to think that they have less opportunities. This is just not true. Like I said, same books, classes, and teachers. My school population is 52% black, 47% white, 1% everybody else. I got that off the school website (of course they had 'everybody else' categorized with decimals, but I added them together for my convenience) so there's really not a black minority. Plus, my white principal is so terrified of being called a racist that he gives the black kids less severe punishments and looks the other way more when they have dress code infractions. For instance, he tried to suspend a white girl I knew who had put pink streaks in her hair until she redyed it a natural color, but he has yet to say a single thing to the dozens of black girls with cherry/fire-engine red and platinum blond dyed hair. As we all know, platinum blond IS NOT a natural hair color for a black woman. It's just not. And fire-engine red isn't a natural color for ANYONE.

But anyway, I am strongly opposed to racism in general. I believe people are people and that's all there is to it. But it does kind of irk me that racism against whites is treated like it doesn't happen. I hate the general attitude that only white people can be racist. It's just willful ignorance (which I hate in EVERY COLOR).

I don't like the word 'Caucasian'. It sounds ugly and it feels awkward to say. I don't like that term 'African American' either. Would a 'Caucasian' person who immigrated here from Africa be categorized as a 'Caucasian' or an 'African American'? Technically they fit into either group, right?

I didn't read the article but I'm guessing it's the same thing I heard about on youtube when I was watching a vid about it.

Racism is definitely better but its not gone. And it will never go away. If anything, I think gay rights is the bigger thing as of right now.
My parents have never said anything racist in the past but definitely something demeaning when it comes to gays.
Which is strange because their own child is bi ]:

... I do find myself racist sometimes. Not so much that I hate them and I want everyone who isn't white to die o.o

No no, I just... I have comments in my head about a certain individual that just happens to be of a certain race. They usually aren't nice thoughts. I think that's normal though, I'm making a comment about one person, not the whole race as a group...

Although, I do notice that one thing I don't like about a certain person who belongs to a different race... is noticeable in others that are of the same race.
Maybe its just different cultures.
I don't know.

I'm not racist, I like to think I'm not.
But I do have thoughts that make me wonder that... if even a little bit... am I racist?

The thing about human beings is that we're social animals. Race and gender aren't the only ways we find to separate ourselves into neat little groups. Are you a fan of this sports team or that? Do you like this anime or that one? It is part of our social and psychological makeup to form groups based on those who are like us. Race and ethnicity are the easiest way for us to do so.

I am a native of South Carolina, and I can tell you that in the article when they mentioned that children still tend to separate based on race, I can say that it's true. When I was in elementary school, there were only a few black kids because Hollywood was were all the kids that lived out in the country went, and the rural black population wasn't very large at that time in my area. We had a handful of black kids and almost no Hispanics, so black kids were accepted and hung out with the white kids. I remember playing with one of them all the time. One of the boys I played with's name was Jargas, and sometimes he'd come over to my house when his dad would come to work for my grandmother. He and his little brother and sister played with me sometimes.

I didn't see large racial self-segregation until I entered middle school. We had only one middle school in the county then, and that was a culture shock because I had to get used to being around a large number of black kids. It is here that I can sort of empathize with Roze-with-thorns. After that, I was always mindful of what I said because I didn't want anyone to think I was racist, even though I distinctly remember being insulted along with every other white child in one class by a black girl exclaiming that "we're black from birth, but you white kids come out pink." I barely spoke to Jargas after we got into middle school.

Yeah, society is still heavily influenced by racism and by the quest to not be. Everyone scrambles to not sound racist - including me - but in doing so don't seem to realize that racism isn't just between black people and white people. It's everyone. I've been discriminated against in various ways by both black and Hispanic people in my town. I went into a local tienda to buy pan dulce once, and I had the distinct feeling that all of the Hispanics in the place thought I didn't belong there.

I'll say here and now that I don't like the N word. My parents took me aside when I was little and told me that it was a bad word, and since then I've never used it to describe anyone. Furthermore, I don't like when ANYONE uses it to describe anyone else.

I'm not racist. I don't believe race has anything to do with the basic makeup of a person's soul, and so it should not be a benchmark used to judge other people. I am white, but the only thing that my skin color does for me is makes it easy for me to suffer sunburn.

And in the article when it mentioned that kids would think that members of this group or that were mean or always nice? I learned pretty quickly that race doesn't affect who is malicious and who isn't. That's a universal trait of human nature, and skin color doesn't change it.