Parents and educators often skip the important step of talking about skin tone with children. White parents who were taught to avoid talking about race as children often don’t know what to say. Other adults, eager to teach children to be antiracist, go straight to heavy issues of discrimination and oppression.
Celebrating the incredible diversity of skin tones that exists is a crucial step that should be taken before exploring systemic racism with children.
Kids are much better prepared to embrace social justice if we start by exploring their own identities, and encouraging them to celebrate others’ identities too.
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That’s why I was so excited to learn that my colleague Dr. Lucretia Carter Berry has written a children’s activity book about skin tone.
Hues of You: An Activity Book for Learning about the Skin You Are In by Lucretia Carter Berry and Adia Carter
Purchase from Bookshop.org (supports independent bookstores)
Discounts are available for bulk orders; see information on the Brownicity site.
Hues of You has many activities that help kids identify their own particular skin tone, as well as hues of other people in their lives. The book also covers hair textures, melanin and where ancestors lived, eye colors, and the clothes we wear.
Sometimes parents are surprised (and embarrassed) by their children’s questions about skin tone. It’s natural and age-appropriate for kids to notice that people have many different shades of skin.
Equipping adults to talk with children about skin tone
This activity book not only helps children explore topics related to race. It also guides caregivers and educators on how to use the book and have positive conversations about physical differences.
The activities and prompts address questions like: Why do people wear hair coverings? Why does my skin get darker in the sun? How do I look similar to and different from my family members?
Related post: 21 powerful books about race and racism for kids and teens
Giving children respectful, accurate language for our physical differences is so important. The activity book itself does this. There are also helpful resources for naming various skin tones on Brownicity’s website. (Scroll toward the bottom of the page to find them.)
You’ll definitely want a set of skin tone crayons or colored pencils to go with the activity book.
Related post: 14 picture books about multiracial families
There aren’t many resources for children that talk about how skin tone relates to where our ancestors come from. A section of Hues of You addresses this topic, and invites kids to think about where and how their ancestors might have lived.
Related post: 5 ways to celebrate darkness with children
Why Dr. Berry created Hues of You
I asked Dr. Berry if she could provide some background about why she created this activity book about skin tone. She pointed out that “in general, we lack a fundamental understanding of race as a construct. Skin is biological. Race is not.”
She found that as she helped adult learners make this distinction, they became more curious and less judgmental about the topics of race and racism.
“In the meantime, children had lots of questions about our multi-hued world,” Dr. Berry explained, “but their adults were too afraid to acknowledge and address it. I answered and collected the children’s questions and created Hues of You to help meet their curiosity within the normalcy of diversity.”
Related Post: How to talk to kids about race: a guide for white parents
Many adults who are parents and teachers today were taught the myth that people can and should be colorblind. Dr. Berry points out that this has robbed us of language for describing and appreciating diversity. “Naming allows existence, gives meaning, and confers dignity,” she points out. “When we are dignified in our existence, we can dignify our neighbors.”
Related Post: A kid-friendly glossary of race and racism
Additional resources for exploring and understanding skin tone with children
Dr. Berry is a founder of Brownicity, which offers B.kids, an online course for preschool and elementary age children to learn about skin tone. It includes art and other activities based on children’s books that address race and diversity.
Brownicity also offers an on-going membership program for adults that includes many courses, including a short course from me on talking to white children about race and racism.
My parenting book: Raising Antiracist Kids: An age-by-age guide for parents of white children
All the Colors We Are/Todos los colores de nuestro piel by Katie Kissinger (for ages 3 – 8)
Our Skin: A First Conversation about Race by Megan Madison, Jessica Ralli, and Isabel Roxas (for ages 3 – 7)
Kid activist Bellen Woodard’s More Than Peach project
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