Using Racial Concepts to Control
The complex nature of children’s group interactions and their solo behaviors demonstrates that race and ethnicity are salient, substantial aspects of their lives. They understand racial nuances that seem surprisingly sophisticated, including the power of race. How children use this power in their relationships is demonstrated in further episodes….
In another encounter, this time among three children, a White child demonstrates her knowledge of broader race relations, demonstrating her grasp of race-based power inequalities. During play time Debi watches Renee (4: White) pull Ling-mai (3: Asian) and Jocelyn (4.5: White) across the playground in a wagon. Renee tugs away enthusiastically. Suddenly, Renee drops the handle, which falls to the ground, and she stands still, breathing heavily. Ling-mai, eager to continue this game, jumps from the wagon and picks up the handle. As Ling-mai begins to pull, Renee admonishes her, No, no. You can’t pull this wagon. Only White Americans can pull this wagon. Renee has her hands on her hips and frowns at Ling-mai. Ling-mai tries again, and Renee again insists that only “White Americans” are permitted to do this task.
Ling-mai sobs loudly and runs to a teacher, complaining that Renee hurt my feelings. Did you hurt Ling-mai’s feelings? the teacher asks Renee, who nods, not saying a word. I think you should apologize, the teacher continues, because we are all friends here and friends don’t hurt each other’s feelings. Sorry, mutters Renee, looking at Ling-mai, I didn’t do it on purpose. OK, the teacher finishes, can you guys be good friends now? Both girls nod without looking at each other and quickly move away.
This interaction reveals several layers of meaning. Both children recognized the implications of Renee’s harsh words and demands. Renee accurately underscored the point that Ling-mai, the child of Asian international students, was neither White nor American. Her failure to be included in these two groups, according to Renee’s pronouncement, precluded her from being in charge of the wagon. Ling-mai responded, not by openly denying Renee’s statements, but by complaining to the teacher that Renee had hurt her feelings. Both children seem knowledgeable about the structure of the U.S. and global racial hierarchy and accept the superior position accorded to Whites. The four-year-old child exercised authority as a White American and controlled the play with comments and with her stance and facial expressions. Our findings extend previous research on young children’s knowledge of status and power (Corsaro 1979; Damon 1977) by showing that children are aware of the power and authority granted to Whites. The children were not confused about the meanings of these harsh racial words and actions.
Adult Misperceptions
Children’s use of racial and ethnic concepts often goes unnoticed, even by adults in daily contact with them. This is illustrated by the responses of classroom teachers and the center director to preliminary reports on our research. Debi wrote two research reports, one for the classroom teachers and one for the director. After reading the reports, the teachers insisted to Debi that she must have been observing some other children and that these are not our kids. The director seemed determined to “guess” the identity of children whose incidents Debi described at a meeting. Throughout the episodes Debi described, he interrupted with remarks like I’ll bet that’s Sarah you’re talking about, isn’t it? His determination to attach names to the children revealed his investment in “curing” racism. He seemed determined to discover the culprits so unlearning might begin.
Adults’ strong need to deny that children can use racial and ethnic concepts is also revealed in the next account. Here two children are engaged in a discussion of “what” they are. Debi is sitting with all the children on the steps to the deck playing “Simon Says.” “Simon,” a child selected by teachers to lead the game, directs the main action, while Debi observes that Rita (3.5: White/Latina) and Louis (4: Black) are engaged in their own private side activity. While the game continues, Rita and Louis discuss what they are. What are you? Louis asks Rita, and without waiting for her reply announces, I’m Black and you’re White. No, she retorts, correcting him, I’m not White, I’m mixed. Louis regards her curiously, but at this moment Joanne, the lone Black teacher in the classroom, intervenes. You’re not mixed, Rita, you’re Spanish, she informs the child. What race am I? Joanne continues, trying to get the children to change the subject and glancing over at me anxiously. Rita replies, Mixed. Mixed!? Joanne, laughing, responds, Mixed with what? Blue, Rita says, looking only at her hands. Joanne is wearing a solid blue outfit. Oh no, honey, Joanne says, I’m Black too, like Louis, not mixed. What an interesting conversation you guys are having. Rita says nothing in response, and Louis remains silent throughout Joanne’s attempt at dialogue. Suddenly, “Simon Says” ends and the kids run to the playground, escaping Joanne’s questions. Joanne smiles and remarks to Debi, Boy, it’s really amazing what they pick up, isn’t it?
When Joanne intervened, Rita and Louis had to refocus their attention from a discussion between themselves about what they “are” to responding to Joanne’s questioning. The adult interruption silenced Louis completely and made Rita defensive and wary. As other research has demonstrated, adult involvement in children’s discourse can result in changes in the nature of the children’s relations (Danielewicz, Rogers, and Noblit 1996). Rita realized that she must avoid sanctions when Joanne introduced her own racial identity into the game, attempting to distract the children from what Joanne perceived as an argument based on racial differences. However, the children were engaged in an appropriate discussion about their origins. Rita is indeed a “mixed” Latina, for her mother is from one Latin American country and her father is from another Latin American country. Rita understood this and had on other occasions described trips to visit her father’s home. Louis is indeed Black and views Rita as White. Rita seemed to be trying to extend the concept beyond skin color and thus to educate Louis, until the teacher interrupted. Joanne’s assumption seemed to be twofold: that Rita was confused and that as a teacher Joanne must act preventively. Here the teacher focused on quashing prejudice rather than seizing an opportunity to listen to the children and discuss their racial and ethnic perspectives. Adults tend to control children’s use of racial and ethnic concepts and interpret children’s use of these concepts along prejudice-defined lines. Clearly, the social context of children’s learning, emphasized in the interpretive approach, includes other children and adults, but our accounts also demonstrate the way in which children’s sophisticated understandings are developed without adult collaboration and supervision….
Conclusion
Through extensive observation, this study has captured the richness of children’s racial and ethnic experiences. The racial nature of children’s interactions becomes fully apparent only when their interactions are viewed over time and in context. Close scrutiny of children’s lives reveals that they are as intricate and convoluted as those of adults.
Blumer (1969:138) suggests that any sociological variable is, on examination, “an intricate and inner-moving complex.” Dunn (1993) notes that children’s relationships are complex and multidimensional, even within their own families…. By exploring the use of racial concepts in the child’s natural world, instead of trying to remove the child or the concepts from that world, we glean a more complete picture of how children view and manipulate racial and ethnic concepts and understandings.
For most children, racial and ethnic issues arise forcefully within the context of their interaction with others. Most of the children that we observed had little or no experience with people from other racial or ethnic groups outside of the center. For these very young children, who are having their first extensive social experiences outside the family, racial and ethnic differences became powerful identifiers of self and other. Whether this is also true for children who do not experience such a diverse range of exposure to racial and ethnic concepts is beyond the scope of this project. However, over
