Helping Children Adopt A Fresh Perspective On Color
From the outside it looked like an ordinary classroom. But inside extraordinary things were happening.Twelve third graders, six Black and six White, giggled nervously as their adult leader urged them to "stretch out" on the classroom floor. The children were tentative - many of them had just met a few minutes before - but they followed directions, extending their arms to the center, forming the spokes of a colorful wheel.
As the leader leaned over the circle, she held sheets of black and white construction paper above the students' hands and asked: "Are there any black hands in this circle? Any white hands?" The children quickly recognized that no one's skin was actually "black" or "white" - each was a unique variation of brown or tan or pink. They were surprised, and intrigued, by the contrast between what they were seeing and the language so commonly used to reference the color of skin.
Building on this experience, each child was paired with a "buddy" whose skin color differed from his or her own. The leader asked the children to move to nearby tables and trace outlines of one of their own hands and a hand of their buddy. Excitedly sorting through boxes of skin-tone crayons, buddies identified the shades that most closely resembled the small hands before them. Friendly debates broke out - "I think my skin looks like butterscotch". "No, it's more like root beer"; "Your hands look like vanilla"."I think they're like cinnamon".
Once the children had agreed on just the "right" shades, they colored in their hand tracings. When they had finished, they shared their work with the entire group; a warm camaraderie between partners was evident. The task of hand tracing, the experience of touch, and the animated discussion about skin color had helped to demystify "the other"; the children had taken important first steps toward bridging the racial divide.
The "skin color" exercise provides a snapshot of Calling All Colors, an innovative children's diversity education program in Southwest Michigan.
A New Program is Born: Calling All Colors
Calling All Colors was introduced in southwest Michigan in the spring of 1999 in an effort to promote contact between students from Benton Harbor, a community in which more than 90% of the residents are "Black", and the neighboring towns of St. Joseph and Stevensville, in which more than 90% of the residents are "White".The Calling All Colors organizing committee, led by local resident Andy Sawyer, believed that bringing children together to share a variety of positive experiences would diminish stereotypes, reduce anxiety, and promote increased understanding and trust.
Originally developed at Coastal Carolina University, Calling All Colors began with a nine-year-old girl's conviction that the active participation of children from different racial groups was critical in addressing painful issues that have long haunted this nation. Responding to several incidents of "racial unrest", the university had sponsored a conference, "Healing the Wounds of Racism: Education's Role." A few days following the conference Anisa Kintz, a student at a local elementary school, approached her teacher and asked: "Why didn't they invite the kids? Why not ask us what to do about the problem?"
Recognizing Anisa's determination and the strength of her argument, the teacher introduced her to Dr. Sally Hare, Dean of Graduate and Continuing Education at Coastal Carolina. Dr. Hare was enthused about Anisa's idea of a children's conference, and agreed to work with her to organize the first Calling All Colors program. Since then, Calling All Colors has become an annual event in South Carolina, and the movement has spread, in a variety of forms, to communities across the country.