Infants and Racism (1 Viewer)

[glvsav37]

Sesame Street to Introduce 2 new African American Characters link

first off, I have no issue with the fact the SS is introducing black characters, thats not what this is about. 

Second, I'm no psychologist so I have no scientific data to back up or disprove this, but I found this piece of the story odd. 

“At Sesame Workshop, we look at every issue through the lens of a child. Children are not colorblind—not only do they first notice differences in race in infancy, but they also start forming their own sense of identity at a very young age,” Betancourt said. “‘The ABCs of Racial Literacy’ is designed to foster open, age-appropriate conversations among families and support them in building racial literacy. By encouraging these much-needed conversations through Coming Together, we can help children build a positive sense of identity and value the identities of others.”

The Department of Education explicitly told parents that “silence about race reinforces racism by letting children draw their own conclusions based on what they see.” 

The graphic shows the linear aging of a child and details how parents should talk about race and racism at each stage of their childhood. Parents are told to talk to their three-month-olds about racism because “babies look more at faces that match the race of their caregivers.” 

At the age of two, the graphic claims that children use race “to reason about people’s behaviors” and, by 30 months, they allegedly use race to choose their friends. By ages four and five, children allegedly become racially prejudiced. 

According to the graphic, by the time children reach kindergarten they can become full-blown racists. Kindergarteners allegedly “show many of the same racial attitudes that adults in our culture hold — they have already learned to associate some groups with higher status than others.” Parents are encouraged to have conversations with kindergarteners to discuss how interracial friendships can improve their racial attitudes. 

My only proof that seems odd to me is looking at my own children, 14 and 10. We live in a very diverse neighborhood, a mix of white spanish and African American. My oldest is really the onyl white kid in her group, and closest friend in her school is our neighbors (who are only a year or so into our neighborhood) and are African American.

My son has a less diverse friend group mainly b/c most of his friends are from his ice hockey team (which is predominantly white sport) but I know he has AA and spanish friends in his class b/c I hear him speak about playing with them at recess. 

Whereas our very close family friend unit—adults and kids we typically spend our time with and go on vacation with—are all white. Even their caregiver from ages 0-5 was a white woman (saying b/c caregivers were mentioned in the study)

If anything, I have hope in the younger generations as I believe that are more color blind and inclusive to people of different races and gender differences. They have grown up with TV shows of mixed families and alternative lifestyles. 

IDK if I really believe this science? 

(and yes, I know the DailyWire is a conservative outlet, but it was the quote I am reacting to)

 

[parasaurolophus]

I don't really think it is very controversial to think this stuff about infants. I mean babies have lots of instinctual behavior and are helpless. People of different races look very different to a baby. If babies naturally gravitate to caretakers for survival purposes why wouldn't they shy away from people that look different than their caretakers?

 

[Hoodoo]

I don't really think it is very controversial to think this stuff about infants. I mean babies have lots of instinctual behavior and are helpless. People of different races look very different to a baby. If babies naturally gravitate to caretakers for survival purposes why wouldn't they shy away from people that look different than their caretakers?

Familiarity is a lot different than bias. If you ever watched pre-schoolers on a playground it seems very obvious they don't care what color you are.

 

[Jayrod]

I'm looking forward to the day when race is a non-issue.  Not because I don't want to talk about it or deal with it, but just want our society to no longer HAVE to address it.  I don't know if we will get there in my lifetime, but I hope we do.

My grandparents generation were mostly raised in the 30's & 40's and knew the racist attitudes of the rural Midwest and may have even been actively racist.  I never heard any stories, but it also never came up.  My dad did say that his grandparents (my great grandparents) referred to black people as "darkies".  My grandfather once told me that Chinese students had a greater ability to concentrate on their schoolwork for longer periods of time than other races (he was a college professor). 

My parents grew up in the 60's & 70's in predominantly white communities and I think they were a little racist in some aspects (more my mother than my father just based on her reactions to black people in general).  However, they never taught it per se, but I also grew up in a very homogenous community in middle class suburban Missouri.  I wasn't really around African-Americans or even Hispanic-Americans until my college years in St. Louis in the late 90's.  But for me, being an athlete, I was instantly bonded to many non-white teammates and it was never an issue.  My wife went to the same college and was a track athlete, so she had the same experience and I believe and hope that neither of us have passed any racist thoughts/attitudes on to our kids.  My son is good friends with some of his black classmates and my daughter has a good friend who is mixed race.  My son is very inquisitive and has asked racial questions on occasion, but it has always been out of genuine curiosity and a desire to know the truth about things.

If we can all approach the issues with complete honesty and a desire to improve as a society, I don't see why we can't see real lasting change on race relations within a generation or two.  What we pass on to our children will be more of a product of our own beliefs and standards than any programming decision made by Sesame Street.

 

[rct]

I'm looking forward to the day when race is a non-issue.  Not because I don't want to talk about it or deal with it, but just want our society to no longer HAVE to address it.  I don't know if we will get there in my lifetime, but I hope we do..

It won't be a non-issue until discrimination based on race ends. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening even in the lifetime of those who are currently toddlers.  

 

[wikkidpissah]

when human beings finally admit that the animal part of themselves is not the best part of themselves, then we can successfully deal with racism. there will be dominance hierarchies - and conflict over where those lines are drawn - til then, mostly along the lines of the Judeo-Christian ethic which has herded us for millenia. 99.4444% of behavior is abstractions of pre-conscious impulses, appetites & alarms. get over yourselves, then get over yourselves...

 

[Grace Under Pressure]

If anything, I have hope in the younger generations as I believe that are more color blind and inclusive to people of different races and gender differences. They have grown up with TV shows of mixed families and alternative lifestyles. 

We should be at this point already. I'm disappointed in my generation (I'm 50). We were supposed to be the ones. Now we're hoping it's on our kids. That's a failure IMO. 

 

[Insein]

Hasn't Sesame Street had human characters of all ethnicities since it's inception? Haven't they promoted cultural cohesion since the beginning? Sharing, caring, not judging others, being friends. This has always been Sesame Street. 

Why now is it so important to have new characters that teach children about being hated for the color of their skin? That seems counterproductive unless the goal is to further promote racial divide. 

 

[Gawain]

I'm sticking with the SNL take on this one.

Which of these are white?

 

[supermike80]

We should be at this point already. I'm disappointed in my generation (I'm 50). We were supposed to be the ones. Now we're hoping it's on our kids. That's a failure IMO. 

I truly don't believe many are totally interested in eliminating racism.  They just want to utilize it to better their situation in many cases.

 

[Jayrod]

I'm sticking with the SNL take on this one.

Which of these are white?

Bert.

He's also the most uptight character of the group.

 

[Gawain]

Bert.

He's also the most uptight character of the group.

And that's the rub with creating specifically African-American muppets. No kid looks at Elmo or Oscar or Big Bird and identifies them as a member of any ethnic group. Each viewer can currently identify with each Sesame Street muppet because they exist in a race-free environment. That is not to say the entirety of Sesame Street is race free. When Mr. Hooper helped Gordon, kids saw a white person helping a black person. When Mr. Noodle can't manage to put on his GD shoes, Sesame Street shows that white adults aren't infallible. 

However, all life lessons learned by all of the Sesame Street muppets were applicable to children of all races simply because they exist in a race-free society. By establishing explicitly black muppets, Sesame Street is implying that the other muppets are not black. By setting two new characters apart, the existing characters occupy a different space. In 1991, Sesame Street introduced children to Rosita, a bilingual muppet who spoke with a hispanic accent. However, Rosita is modeled on a bat and hails from the caves of Mexico. The character was not created as an active identifier, but as a means to introduce the concepts of bilingualism and immigrant culture. The character was not designed to look Latinx.

By delineating what is African-American, the show is going to make all other charcters non-African American and do a disservice to white and black viewers. 

 

[rcam]

I'm looking forward to the day when race is a non-issue.  Not because I don't want to talk about it or deal with it, but just want our society to no longer HAVE to address it.  I don't know if we will get there in my lifetime, but I hope we do.

My grandparents generation were mostly raised in the 30's & 40's and knew the racist attitudes of the rural Midwest and may have even been actively racist.  I never heard any stories, but it also never came up.  My dad did say that his grandparents (my great grandparents) referred to black people as "darkies".  My grandfather once told me that Chinese students had a greater ability to concentrate on their schoolwork for longer periods of time than other races (he was a college professor). 

My parents grew up in the 60's & 70's in predominantly white communities and I think they were a little racist in some aspects (more my mother than my father just based on her reactions to black people in general).  However, they never taught it per se, but I also grew up in a very homogenous community in middle class suburban Missouri.  I wasn't really around African-Americans or even Hispanic-Americans until my college years in St. Louis in the late 90's.  But for me, being an athlete, I was instantly bonded to many non-white teammates and it was never an issue.  My wife went to the same college and was a track athlete, so she had the same experience and I believe and hope that neither of us have passed any racist thoughts/attitudes on to our kids.  My son is good friends with some of his black classmates and my daughter has a good friend who is mixed race.  My son is very inquisitive and has asked racial questions on occasion, but it has always been out of genuine curiosity and a desire to know the truth about things.

If we can all approach the issues with complete honesty and a desire to improve as a society, I don't see why we can't see real lasting change on race relations within a generation or two.  What we pass on to our children will be more of a product of our own beliefs and standards than any programming decision made by Sesame Street.

It is a pipe dream. Racism has been around for literal millennia in all countries and cultures. It is pervasive, and it is insidious, and it is so, so easy to rationalize away. One of my grandfathers was born in Iowa in 1922. My grandfather would say he was only racist against the Japanese (due to fighting in the Pacific Ocean theater in WWII). I realized much later in life, that his idea (and probably many others) of racism is hating a race for being that race. If you didn't hate the race - you weren't racist. I think a lot of people now subconsciously think the same thing. It is why systemic racism is everywhere - but people don't see discrimination or don't want to talk about it or (as noted on this board) people are tired about talking about it. I must admit, it is exhausting at times, and too easy to just stop caring.

Some memorable utterances of my grandfather

"I've managed darkies for years in construction. They do the job just fine."

"I'm OK with colored people sitting where they want on a bus but I wouldn't want one dating your mom."

"You know what we called the freeway in Oakland? The Mau Mau freeway."

"It's raining pitchforks and n***** babies."

"It's OK to be born black in the United States, but, when you get older, you'll be glad you were born white."

BUT, til his dying breath, he would say he was not racist and you couldn't convince him otherwise.

Many people honestly believe the Civil War was about States' Rights. Many people think Constitutional Amendments and Civil Rights Acts mean the battle is won - or mostly won. We literally have a Jim Crow-esque set of voting laws being passed in Georgia and people on this board are defending it. ~160 years after the Civil War and voter suppression is still an acceptable thing to many. I will admit things are, on a whole, getting better;  but this struggle has been going on a long time, and IMO still haven't cleared a low bar. 

 

[Summer Wheat]

It won't be a non-issue until discrimination based on race ends. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening even in the lifetime of those who are currently toddlers.  

What the biggest concern is nowhere in the world is it a "non-issue".  Studies have show that all races no matter what part of the world you are from are inherently somewhat racist or bigots.   Even as we try to show commercials of a party where there are whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Arabs all together drinking and laughing.  In real life those are few and far between.    Most Chinese and Japanese people I know really do not want their children marrying out of race, there are Jews and Muslims who feel the same way about marrying a different faith. 

Can things be better?  Of course.  Will this country or any country on earth ever be close to a utopia?  No.