Art and Skin Tones

After reading an article about different activities and experiments that were done to test and familiarize students with different skin tones I was really struck by the use of art to reach these goals.

I read about a series of experiments that were observed in art class, most notably one that involved children selecting photographs of people from different cultures with vastly different skin tones and creating two hand prints. They would create one that was left in a color close to their skin tone and another in a skin tone that was very different from their own.

The result that really struck me was that this lead to students not only noticing and talking about skin color in a very engaged and curious way, it lead to them more frequently using different brown tones that they previously found unattractive. They'd create rainbows with peach, caramel and cocoa colors, and refer to these shades as beautiful, while also discussing how everyone has a slightly different skin tone  - a trait they apparently hadn't otherwise noticed.

I think this is a very very important step when engaging children in conversations about race, because it gets to the very primal, immediate core of a lot of prejudice. The very first indication that someone is from a different ethnic background than yours is the color of their skin, and racial prejudices can run so deep that it happens almost instantly.  For kids to see these different skin tones and think and talk about them in a way that truly engages their interest, they begin to learn about that specific trait without any of the politics or outside beliefs being factored into it. There is no discussion of slavery, or racism, or the 'colorblind' approach where we talk about everyone as if there are no differences. It's a simple exploration of the colors themselves.

The one question I would want to discuss with the author is: "What is the youngest possible age to begin this exploration?" I think since children learn so much of their behavior at developing stages, it would be beneficial if there were a way to introduce this to children at the earliest possible stage.

I would also want to hear from current instructors who breach the subject with their classrooms, and learn not only how they do it, but when. I'm really curious if instructors of a certain age range are finding that students have a relatively low awareness when coming to the classroom, or if they have an opinion about what age these concepts should be introduced.  Race is obviously a factor in the classroom and will effect the way students interact with each other on some level, so I think it would be great to get a real understanding of how those issues are coming to the surface (or not) in different age groups, and different geographical areas and demographics.