Are Kids Color Blind?

This week we've been reading several books about Martin Luther King Jr. Who he was and why he is significant. Most of the books are stories written about his childhood with beautiful illustrations. After reading this book for several days in a row the questions started:

Mommy what is white?- Ellie 6

Well Ellie in this book the word white is referring to the color of some one's skin....

I've never seen white skin.. my skin is peachy.. Ansley's has some red in it... Addis is dark brown and mommy you are light brown...

Well Ellie they use that word to be generic... lump a whole bunch of skin tones into one category...

Once we got to the part of Rosa Parks...

So mom is this saying that Addis would have to sit in the back of the bus?

After I lifted my jaw from the floor... Well yes if Addis lived during that time.. but that was a terrible law and many people realized the foolishness of it and worked very hard for change and MLK is one of those people.

Momma I know what they can do... just sit in a seat that does not have anyone in it.. then people would not fight over seats. Ansley Mills 4

You know if only it were that easy... Just sit in an empty seat. It seems to me that kids are aware of skin color in the same way they are aware of your shirt color. In our neighborhood skin color comes in every shade and languages vary just as much. So how do I explain racism to my kids? How do I protect Addis from ever feeling that he is given second and third glances because of his skin color? The short answer is...I can't. However I don't want those to be the reasons why I shy away from these questions. I used to think parenting was hard when they were first born. Hah! That was not parenting.. that was keeping them alive. Funny how your perspective changes...