“People Are Children” is a short documentary, a conversation really, that explores the voices and perspectives of many types of children of varying backgrounds. When we discuss discrimination and diversity we sometimes forget that the world we are living in does not belong to us, but rather, our children. They are the ones who inherit our fears, loves, prejudices, etc. They learn it by watching us. In this short, children remind us of how simple, complicated and absurd intolerance is. They inspire us to change.
I stumbled across this short film on You Tube and found it compelling, though sometimes frustrating. It is educational to hear how children learn about race from adults, even when we think we aren’t teaching. Note the boy whose parents told him just not to look anyone in the eye, whatever their race.
It is frustrating, though, how the filmmakers’ biases about race seem to weave into the film. I was annoyed by the opening minutes of the documentary, because its makers seem to be pushing the meaningless notion that kids don’t understand the words “race,” “racism” or “ethnicity.” That is true–kids may not know those words, but they do understand difference; they do begin making assumptions based on skin color; and they do begin absorbing society’s biases about race–even if they don’t know what to call it. Too often, parents use “my kid won’t see race or racism unless I talk about it” as an excuse not to be proactive anti-racist parents.
What’s your take on this short film?
I’m struck by how–in most cases, not all– these children’s responses seem already SO shaped by how they believe they are SUPPOSED to respond. In this way, I’m not sure that the film shows how children think about race, or more how children have learned to talk about it…
The other thing that bothered me and seems ripe for discussion here is the story the white boy told about being chased home. Let me clarify–I’m bothered not by the story itself but by the parents’ response, which seemed both “off” somehow and terribly unhelpful. The boy’s report that he now avoids all black boys so as not to run into that particular group of black boys was one of the moments of real honesty in the films and struck me as both sad and unnecessary… I’m trying to think what I would like them to have done instead, and would appreciate hearing ideas from others…
Julia,
I also felt something about that story was “off.” It’s hard to know what really happened, obviously, but the fact that he interpreted the event as “racial” seemed in no small part influenced by his parents views on race before and after the event. That the solution to this problem, endorsed by his parents, was to avoid all black young boys , is very telling.
Very compelling. I agree all of the questions about race, racism and ethnicity at the beginning of the film was a little much. No, children don’t understand what those words mean, but they know what it means when someone calls them a bad name or is mean to them in some way. I think the questions should have been asked at their level, and I am sure that would have resulted in different responses.
This is just incredibly well done.
It is very moving how lucid and beautifully these children tell their truth. The girl with glasses particularly is a heroine. She just knows who she is without equivocation. Beautiful.
The harassing bus driver story just makes me so angry. Bus drivers are paid such low wages in many states and so many are not checked out for priors. They take their adult issues and frustrations out on innocent children which is so horrendous.
I think the young white kid is just trying to make sense of a situation he does not really understand, I don’t see how his parents have conditioned him to fear one race of people. At least he seems like he’s trying not to give in if indeed they are. He was physically threatened, chased even, so of course he is going to be wary in the future. He also said his parents told him to “don’t look anyone in the eye whether it’s your race or not.” Good advice. I totally identify. I learned to completely avoid black men when I was 11 years old because they almost always made really sexually threatening comments at my tall for my age body-even if I was with my mother. I was also getting zero help at home with my issues so I had no road map to understand that it was not all being directed at me and that these were just a minuscule amount of people not an entire race. But even with that knowledge and a greater capacity to reason like some of these brave children display in the film, I’m sure that I still would have been wary.
When we moved out of the bay Area to Rural right wing land, one really nasty white kid with KKK style hatred, seemed to be everywhere. If I went to a county fair or the mall, like a Twilight Zone episode he was always there, or at least I anticipated he would be.
I learned to avoid anyone who remotely resembled him and still never went near groups of one or more black men if I was visiting the city as a teen. Survival over negotiation and empathy-always- if you are a child at risk. Sadly there are simply areas where as a child you need to fear everyone which is why I’m homeschooling my children.
“He also said his parents told him to “don’t look anyone in the eye whether it’s your race or not.” Good advice. I totally identify.”
See, I actually find this to be terrible advice. To me, this advice says: “the world is scary and you should fear it. The best way to deal with this scary world is to avoid the scary parts as much as possible.” I can’t see how this is a particularly useful or gives the child any coping skills that help him actually negotiate the world in a confident way.
As Tami said, it’s hard to know what happened, but it seems to me a more useful response would have helped this boy think about how he responded and how he might respond differently.
It also seems like the parents elected to ignore the racial aspect of this encounter (or, at least, this boy’s perception that race was a factor in the other boys’ reaction). Without their guidance, he defaulted to overgeneralizing, which seems like the worst possible outcome. One wonders if this boy has any friends who are black, or ever interacts socially with other black children. his reaction makes me guess that he doesn’t. If I were this kid’s parents, I would be working to change that, and quick.
And, frankly, Amanda, I don’t even know what to do with this part of your comment: “I learned to completely avoid black men when I was 11 years old because they almost always made really sexually threatening comments at my tall for my age body-even if I was with my mother.” On the one hand, I feel for the 11-year-old you, who was in a really confusing and hard to negotiate situation. And I’m sorry that your parents did not help. On the other hand, I’d like to challenge your apparent sense that avoiding all black men was really the best response. I mean, I get that you felt you had to do that then to stay safe, but surely now you can see how unfair it is to let the actions of a few black men inform your idea of what all black men are like?
The kids spoke to the way racism occurs in everyone’s life and that is comes down to trying to make oneself feel good by putting another down. We do it with race, with economic status, athletic ability, etc. It comes out of insecurity about who we are and our place in the world