Race, prejudice, and racism are confusing topics. You may struggle to articulate just what these words mean when you’re talking to adults, let alone kids. That’s why I’ve created this glossary you can use with kids, that includes the definition of race, racism, and many more related terms.
Want a PDF copy of this glossary that you can easily reference a kid-friendly definition of race whenever you need to? Grab your free printable copy of the glossary in my free Resource Library. Request access by filling out the form below.
A note about this glossary as a teaching tool. I don’t recommend sitting kids down with the glossary itself and having them memorize definitions. Instead, learn the definitions yourself and make them your own with adjustments or examples. Then you’ll be ready to sprinkle them into conversations as you discuss your neighborhood or community, read books, and watch news coverage.
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Definitions of race and related terms for kids
A kid-friendly definition of race
Race is a way of grouping people. It’s usually based on skin tone, hair texture, and other ways people look, or on where people’s ancestors are from. Race is a make-believe idea, but we have to learn about it because it has real effects on people’s lives.
Want to dig deeper? Depending on a child’s interest and age, you can flesh out this definition of race a bit more. Scientists tell us that the idea of “race,” that people’s bodies and brains are fundamentally different based on their skin tone or where their ancestors are from, is not true. Did you know that 99.9% of our DNA (the information in our cells that makes us who we are) is identical for every single person?
Many centuries ago, powerful white people who wanted to justify enslaving Black people came up with this idea of race. They tried to make it sound like an idea that was scientifically true. They said that white people were better that Black people, so that made it okay to treat them terribly and force them to work without pay.
Even though we know that there are not actually difference “races” of people, we still need to learn and talk about race. That’s because racism is still being used to divide us, and to hurt Black people and other people of color. We can’t get rid of racism without talking about race.
Recommended resources for kids that explore the definition of race:
Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race by Megan Madison, Jessica Ralli, and Isabel Roxas (ages 3 – 7).
The Fair Housing Five and the Haunted House by Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (ages 6 – 10).
21 powerful books about race and racism for kids and teens
A guide for white parents on how to talk to children about race
A kid-friendly definition of melanin
Melanin is a brown pigment that gives each person their particular skin tone, eye color, and hair color. Your parents and other ancestors passed down the amount of melanin you have to you. People with darker skin have more melanin, and people with lighter skin have less melanin.
Melanin increases when people spend time in the sun, making their skin tone temporarily darker than it was before.
Recommended resources for kids about melanin:
Hues of You: An activity book for learning about the skin you are in by Lucretia Carter Berry (ages 5 – 9)
All the Colors We Are: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color by Katie Kissinger (ages 3 – 7, bilingual English/Spanish text.)
A kid-friendly definition of ethnicity
In Hues of You, Dr. Lucretia Carter Berry describes ethnicity as how “people group themselves together based on certain things they have in common, such as ancestors, culture, or experiences.”
Examples of ethnic groups based on where ancestors are from are Vientnamese, Irish, and Cuban. Other ethnicities are based on culture and common experiences. For example, Jewish is an ethnicity (in addition to being a religion) because of similar experiences Jewish people have shared across time and country.
Definitions of prejudice, racism, and related terms for kids
A kid-friendly definition of prejudice
Prejudice is having an idea about a person, judging them, or excluding them based on a group they belong to, such as their race, ethnicity, gender, or disability. All people have at least some prejudices, but we can unlearn our prejudices if we make the effort.
A kid-friendly definition of racism
(Preschool through elementary age): Dr. Jennifer Harvey says that racism “is all the beliefs, behaviors, and laws in society that harm African American people, Latino people, and all people of color.” (from Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America)
Racism is more than just individual people showing prejudice. It’s a pattern of rules and laws that hurt people of color and give white people unfair advantages that they didn’t earn.
(Middle and high school): Tiffany Jewell describes racism as “personal prejudice and bias AND the systemic misuse and abuse of power by institutions.” (from This Book Is Anti-Raicst: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work).
Institutions like schools, police departments, hospitals, banks, governments, and more have patterns of how they behave and rules based on racial prejudice that treat Black, Indigneous, and People of Color (BIPOC) unfairly.
Related post: Want to teach kids about racism: 4 things you should do first
A kid-friendly definition of white privilege
White privilege is the ways that racist beliefs, behaviors, and laws give unfair advantages to white people. White people are given these advantages whether they ask for them or not. Tiffany Jewell encourages white people to “spend your privilege” by speaking up against racism and uplift the voices of BIPOC folks.
A kid-friendly definition of micraoggressions
A microaggression is teasing someone or hurting their feelings in a way that’s about their identity (their skin color, where their family is from, their gender, their sexual orientation, etc.)
Sometimes people committing microaggressions don’t realize they are saying or doing something offensive, but it still hurts the person hearing it, and it’s not okay.
Related Post: How to talk to children about microaggressions (includes children’s book recommendations)
A kid-friendly definition of white supremacy
White supremacy is the idea that white people are better than Black people and other people of color.
Sometimes white supremacy is really obvious, like a white person saying they don’t want people of color to live in their neighborhood, or that only white people should be government leaders.
But it’s also things that seem ordinary to lots of white people, like always being able to find people who look like us in charge at school, at work, or in our government.
Tiffany Jewell explains that “the dominant culture socializes people of all races to a bias toward whiteness. But our biases can change.”
Related post: What can parents and teachers do about white nationalist recruiting young people?
A kid-friendly definition of antiracism
Antiracism is actively working to challenge racist ideas and policies. It’s not enough to try to avoid saying or doing obviously racist things. We have to put our best effort into fighting racism because it hurts all of us and racism won’t end unless we work together to take it apart.
Related Post: Antiracism at school: 9 examples to inspire educators
5 examples of race-conscious conversations between parents and children
