I know from my experience growing up, I very much knew I was different and was treated as such in kindergarten. I didn’t attend preschool.

Since preschool is a different developmental leve, I fear my insights will not apply.

For me in kindergarten, the “color awareness” came from things like:

1) Kids would sometimes just
matter of factly tell you
you can’t play because you
are Chinese or brown or
whatever (I’m Chicano).

2) White kids would sort of
“circle the wagons” and
bunch up together or subtly
let you know you are an
outsider.

3) The teacher. I remember we
had a “cowboys and Indians”
play and, of course, I was
steered to be an Indian and
generally marginalized.

4) Most everything a child sees
from the media or simply out
in public indicates segregation
is the norm.

Well,like I said, preschool age is an entirely different situation, but I thought maybe somehow sharing my experience might help.

we switched schools and churches in order to have him be in more diverse surroundings (his father is black.) none of this occurred to us until he was 2 1/2 and started talking about skin color.

it’s interesting to say the least.

This was our first “racial” discussion, but I hope we have many more in our future. Keeping these kinds of lines of communication open is important for me. Having taught high school and middle school for years, I’ve seen lots of kids who have been singled out because of race. I pray that my son will always feel like he can talk to me, if this every becomes an issue for him.

Kelly in Ohio