Colorblind? What does that really mean?

After this week's readings I am left with more questions than answers.  One article states that we should be talking to children about race.  So what does that conversation look and sound like?  As an adult I can't remember anytime sitting around talking about race with my friends.  And my friends are black, white, Hispanic, catholic, Jewish, Christian, Irish, Italian, German, French... 

Are you telling me that I am colorblind when I don't refer to my best friend from grad school as my black friend?  I never saw (and still don't) see the color of his skin.  He is my friend.  I watched my child do the same...in preschool.  He never referred to his friend as his black friend, never asked why is my friend's father black?  They are just friends.

Are their life histories and their family heritages different from mine.  Sure.  But so are the histories of the white kids next door.

Do we need to teach our children not to insult and hurt others with words?  Most definitely! However we would be blind to assume that is only needed across races.  It needs to occur within races too: white to white, black to black, Asian to Asian, etc.

There is also a lot of reverse discrimination out there too. We don't see too many articles about that.

We (adults and children) need to embrace our differences, acknowledge and respect our histories, open our hearts and our minds.

As stated by Rita Tenoria, Race and Respect Among Young Children, "the awareness of racial and cultural differences doesn't lead to prejudice and racism, how people respond to these differences does."   I think we can respond without insulting and hurting others. I think we can learn from each other and thus all become better people.