Racism and Young Children
http://tyrashow.warnerbros.com/show_recaps/yesterday_recap.html
On Wednesday May 2, 2007, Tyra's show was titled "Focus on Race:Kids and Race". Children were asked to look at photographs of different races and state what they thought about them. The results were surprising. Every one of the kids exhibited some form of racism. A body image expert talked about how these children's opinions are based on things that they are exposed to at home. Their views are actually reflections of their home lives.
The real surprising part of the show came when Tyra invited Drew and Amy and their children onto the set. Drew and Amy are white supremacists and are striving to instill the same values in their children. This was a really scary segment. When Tyra was interviewing the children she asked one of the children Arik what he hated about black people; his response: " It's not that I hate them but I hate the things they do, including theft, gang related activities and hijacking." Later, she asked his sister why she hated Jewish people, and she responded, "They are the seed of Satan". This family scared me because they,especially the father, seemed to have the same viewpoints as a modern day Hitler. They talked about how they were prepared to fight, to get all those colored people and Negroes to go back to their homeland. I couldn't believe that someone in this day and age could grow up so blind to how wrong views like these are.
Tyra talked about how racist ideas start with our children. Children are the future of the world, and we need to educate them about how race isn't even biologically based; it is a social construct. Children need to know these things today so that they can be more accepting leaders as adults.