I took my Brownies troop (age 8) to a workshop on healthy eating and cooking at the Girl Scouts main office. For a nice change of pace, the workshop was intended for girls only and the main office had hired workshop facilitators to teach the girls. As leaders we got to hang out in the lobby and drink coffee - a leisure activity for once! About 10 minutes into the event a small, blonde, blue eyed 6 year old girl came running out of the workshop in panic calling for her mother who also happened to be one the troop leaders. She cried out, "Mom, I don't know what I am... Am I African American?" We all erupted in laughter.
The facilitators had began the class with a survey to collect data on the girls they were teaching. The first question - name, the second - race. This little girl had never answer this question before and had no idea what the answer was.
The incident was funny, but it stuck with me all day. This little girl was totally color blind before this survey asked her to label herself. We collect data on race in order to monitor inequity and hopefully remedy those inequities. But it are we ensuring inequities by teaching little kids that race is part of their identity?
Wow! That's a powerful post, on so many levels. Makes me wonder how aware these facilitators are of child development.
ReplyDeleteRace is usually an optional question that is asked of adults.
I do understand that this data may be valuable to their organization. But gee wiz, that poor little girl.