God made people in different colors, and to be honest we need to acknowledge that in a comfortable way, and by doing so it helps our children to be comfortable with understanding about different skin colors and accepting that as normal and okay. I like what someone said that we have different skin colors, but are the same inside (we are all people and God’s children)... and that’s what we need to teach our children. We have not had to address this yet (our daughter is 1 1/2), and have a family that is not technically transracial, but looks like it is. I am Anglo from a cultural background and have fair skin, and my husband is half-Latino and half Anglo, but looks white with freckles and blue eyes. Our daughter is Latina (and her little sister too, that we are hoping God will bless us with adopting) and has beautiful golden skin, and she will see that we are each different and yet have similarities, too.
I think we need to talk to and teach our children about people’s skin, eyes, and hair being different in a positive way… that we have differences and things that are the same, and are each one special and unique. And also talk about different cultural backgrounds/languages in a positive way, as ways people are the same as others and different… so that they can learn that cultural backgrounds are a special thing to be a part of too. And I think about referring to someone by their skin color… as our children grow, we can be comfortable talking with them about different skin colors and such, and also gently steer them to calling people by their names when they get to know them, instead of possibly continuing to identify them by their race (and of course other things can be explained and talked about as they grow up).
Kris
