Racist?

I just try to teach my son to judge people on their personality and how nice of a person they are. I know he sees me treating people kindly and I know that kids learn best from what they see their parents doing. I also teach him to be kind to those who are different from him. He has a little girl in his classroom with autism and I try very hard to teach him how to help her and protect her from bullies. His sister has autism and I hope her classmates parents teach their children understanding as well!

Racism and prejudice are learned things. Kid's pick it up from parents and other's, as they get older, they sometimes pick it up from other kids who may be talking about another in a derogatory manner or even be picking on them. You constantly have to remind them that what a person looks like on the outside doesn't determine what kind of person they are. A small child on a playground will play with every other child there, regardless of color, ethncity or whatever, they don't yet see race or anything else, they just see a friend. It's too bad that as they grow older, they begin to learn from adults that those things make a difference just as it's too bad that most adults find themselves unable to look at others in the manner of that small child who just see a friend.

What are your views on racism? I have never seen a reason to hate someone based on any one aspect of their life, especially if it's something they have no control over (race, sexuality, gender). So as a whole I find racism to be rather appauling!

How do you think we should prepare our children for it in school? or do you think we shouldn't prepare them at all and let them figure it out on their own?  I'm not really sure what there is to "prepare" them for. If we, as parents, don't make a big deal out of things like race, they won't either. Kids are born without any preference in things like race, these are things that are learned, not natural.

We live in a very small town, very rural area. We are starting to see more Hispanics in our area due to a meat processing plant nearby. My parents always taught me to treat people how I wanted to be treated. It doesn't matter what color you are as long as you are a nice, decent human being. Enough of this political correctness.

We live in a decent sized town and my children are the ONLY white children in their classrooms, they never have problems with children at school. Our neighbors, we regularly have problems with. If I tell them (neighbors children) "no" for any reason, its always "because I am racist." This is what the parents are teaching their children. The other day I walked around the corner and saw an older boy (mexican) beating the crap out of my 6 y/o. When I told them to leave my son alone a little black boy called me a N*****... All I can assume is these children's parents are teaching them to behave in this manner and it is disturbing because this is the reason why these children end up in jail and then they want to blame everyone but themselves or their parents. We have the option to put the kids in a more evenly proportioned school but I chose their current school because I thought it would teach them tolerance.

We chose to live in a big city, with diverse schools. Our neighborhood has orthodox Jews, hijab wearing Muslims, Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, etc.
My almost 15 year old is truly colorblind; it is a beautiful thing!!