The Skin We Live in Is a Beautiful Thing
Illustration: Humanizing History Visuals
Welcome to Humanizing History™! Every month, we feature a central theme. Each week, we dive into different areas of focus.
This month’s theme: The Human Story Begins in Africa
This week’s focus: How To, recommendations for talking to kids about race, culture, and our inspiring human story
Today’s edition of Humanizing History™ is around 1300 words, an estimated 5-minute read.
The Why for This Week’s Topic
One of the most common race-related concerns educators of young children ask me is what to do when a child points out another child’s skin color in disparaging or harmful ways.
Often, for educators who are not sure what to say or do, these moments are met with avoidance. Sometimes children are hushed, or told it’s not polite to speak about such things. Sometimes they are met with silence.
In my work, I’ve found that the most powerful course of action is to be proactive. We can lean in and help children understand skin — to learn what skin is, to identify its functions, to understand why we have different skin colors, and how this is something we can celebrate.
Skin, especially skin color, is not something we can avoid. Unless they are visually impaired, children see color — and they do so at incredibly young ages.
According to Lawrence A. Hirschfeld’s research, “By 2 or 3 years of age, toddlers have the ready capacity to use racial categories to reason about others and their behavior.”
As described by Erin N. Winkler, “Numerous studies show that three- to five-year olds not only categorize people by race, but express bias based on race.”
Not only do children see race, without positive intervention, their (mis)understanding of it can impair their abilities to make friendships and share connections with others, especially those of different racial identities.
In The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism, Debra Van Ausdale and Joe Feagin devote hundreds of pages to capture how children are color- and race-aware, “Three-, four-, and five-year olds often hold a solid and applied understanding of the dynamics of race.” After spending a year conducting daily observations of racially diverse childcare centers, they noted “low levels of cross-race friendship and little evidence of voluntary association between [racial] groups of children.” They highlighted the powerful role adults play in socialization and racialization, “Ordinarily, children do not try to develop relationships with those in other racial-ethnic groups unless they are directed by teachers or other significant adults.”
While some adults promote a “color-blind” ideology when working with children, it’s not a realistic framework or helpful strategy.
Children see social categories of race, and with our support, we can help them see it in ways that build positive self worth and cross-racial connection. But first, we have to see it this way ourselves.
These conversations can be age-appropriate, rooted in scientific facts, and guided in a way that encourages children to see themselves and others through affirming lenses, which could help cultivate positive racial, ethnic, cultural identity development.
Below, we’ve included powerful questions, frameworks, and recommendations that educators and families can incorporate into lessons or at-home conversations.
What Is Skin? What Is its Function?
The conversation about skin can be expansive and appropriate for children of all ages. Providing students a chance to better understand the vital functions of their skin, and the powerful role of melanin, can encourage students to celebrate both the beauty of human diversity and their own individuality.
A response to “What is skin?” may include interesting facts about skin, such as but not limited to: skin is a visible part of the body; skin is an organ; skin is regularly considered our largest organ; skin is flexible; skin is thinner in some parts and thicker in other parts; skin has many layers.
A response to “What is the function of skin?” may also include a multi-part list, such as but not limited to: skin provides a sense of touch; skin regulates our body temperature; skin protects us by serving as a barrier against harmful substances. And, our skin provides UV protection (or protection from the sun’s harmful rays) by producing varying amounts of melanin.
Why Do We Have Different Skin Colors?
Melanin is a pigment produced in our skin. As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, our human story begins in Africa, which means it’s likely that our common ancestor had deep brown skin. To this day, every human in the world has about the same amount of melanocytes, or special cells that produce melanin, but our bodies have adapted to produce a range of melanin.
Much of this is based on: our ancestors (our biological relatives who lived before us, most of them long ago), what we inherited from them (our genes), and levels of exposure to the sun or UV radiation.
For example, if living in a place with a lot of sun or UV radiation, developing more melanin can help protect our bodies from too much sun exposure, or exposure to UV radiation. If living in a place with less sun, or less UV radiation, having less melanin can help our bodies absorb important vitamins, like Vitamin D.
Whether our bodies produce more melanin and therefore have darker or deeper brown skin, or if our bodies produce less melanin and therefore have lighter skin, we’re all, more or less, shades of brown.
To learn more about the scientific and social overlap of skin, consider the incredible scholarship of Nina Jablonski, such as her TED Talk.
How Is the Skin We Live in a Beautiful Thing?
There are many ways to celebrate the colorful spectrum of our humanity.
Children can engage in the creation of self-portraits, where they learn to mix colors that they feel best represents themselves, they may review photographs, read picture books, etc.
In fact, there’s a curriculum that does all of that! In partnership with Angélica Dass and Aperture, I had the incredible opportunity to create a Grades K-6 Curriculum to celebrate the book The Colors We Share, which is an outgrowth of Angélica Dass’ “photographic work in progress,” Humanae.
Angélica Dass describes her work in this captivating TED Talk. Instead of small or reductive thinking, her work encourages big or nuanced thinking: “By cataloging every conceivable human skin tone, Angélica Dass illustrates that skin color and race are more complex than they might appear at first glance.”
In this curriculum, we examine the questions already posed (i.e., what is skin, its function, etc.) and examine more, such as: How many skin colors exist across humanity? What does skin, especially my own skin, represent to me? Does skin color alone tell a full story? What are the multitude of ways we may view each other, human to human, and view ourselves? How can a discussion of skin underscore our common humanity? How is the skin we live in a beautiful thing?
No matter what resources we use to discuss skin color, it’s important to recognize the immense opportunity we have to positively impact a child's socialization and racial identity development.
What kinds of words do you associate with skin color? To cultivate a culture of belonging in the room, consider that there are many ways to describe ourselves, including skin color.
A goal could be to embrace the diversity of our skin colors, and to allow us to identify ourselves. For example, some people may use food as a reference for skin color (e.g., chocolate, caramel, coffee); however, not everyone may embrace this approach, some may even find it tokenizing. To broaden our perspectives, students may consider a wealth of terms when discussing or describing skin colors, such as taking inspiration from other aspects of the physical world, such as the colors for trees or sand, or naming colors in innovative, imaginative, or even abstract ways.
To cultivate a safe space, when speaking of skin color, it is recommended that students identify their own skin colors, as opposed to an adult or a peer pointing to or singling out another child’s skin color in the room. In short, don't label a child, let them find the words that make sense to them.
Ultimately, an overarching goal is to encourage positive reflections of self.
If you haven’t clicked on the link yet, we highly encourage you to read this free resource on discussing and teaching about skin color with young children: The Colors We Share, Grades K-6 Curriculum, developed by Monique Vogelsang in collaboration with Angélica Dass and Aperture.
It includes 5 lessons with step by step guidance on celebrating the diversity of our humanity.
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