• Marc Chalufour

    Editor, Senior Writer

    Photo: Headshot of Marc Chalufour. A white man with brown hair and wearing a red and blue plaid shirt, smiles and poses in front of a dark grey background.

    Marc Chalufour is a senior editor/writer responsible for print and digital magazines for the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Communication. Prior to joining BU in 2018, he spent a decade editing AMC Outdoors, the Appalachian Mountain Club’s magazine, where his feature writing received multiple awards from Association Media & Publishing. Profile

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There are 4 comments on How to Talk to Kids about Race and Help Them Make More Interracial Friendships

  1. My mother was trained in primary education. She told me this story about when I was two years old in 1945. I noticed that the person at the front door delivering mail had a face a different color from those in my family. I was confused and said something to him about the color. My mother apologized to the mail carrier. Then she took me to the flower bed outside and showed me all the different and beautiful color of the petals. She explained that likewise people have different color skin, and all the colors are beautiful. From then on, I understood and accepted that simple lesson.

  2. This article seems to be a tiny small step in the right direction. Maybe it is beginning to dawn on people ever so subtly that America’s hyper-obsession with race and teaching that to millions of young kids is not healthy for society no matter where you stand on the political spectrum.

    What we are teaching at present is that literally the most important thing about you is your skin color and your gender and to dwell on that endlessly and to check your privilege if you have too little melanin and to feel oppressed if you have more melanin. People esp liberals have to ask themselves – is this a good thing? Do you think that somehow it will bring people together of different races? Is that the basis of real, honest cross racial friendships? For goodness sake, is it any wonder that with this toxic messaging coming from all corners of society that society is self-segregating into their own corners.

    Do you think there will be more or less trust between people of different races teaching to white kids to think of themselves as oppressors and teaching black kids to feel oppressed BY white people. Is that going to lessen or create more prejudice, mistrust and actual racism. I am no scientists or over educated professor but my hunch is that it will breed more racism, mistrust and hate while doing absolutely nothing to alleviate the very real problems of poverty and crime among urban black communities. You do not have to be a genius professor to figure out that any natural human tendency to form honest real cross-racial friendships is likely to be undermined if society is constantly telling you – no the most important thing about your interaction is not human-to-human but oppressed-to-oppressor. This literally what we are teaching now – to see only a person’s skin color first and foremost. Do you really need a study to see how toxic this is?

  3. The following book – originally published in 1997 – might be helpful to better understand the topic:

    Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And other Conversations about Race by Dr. Beverly D. Tatum

    And, yes, it covers all (or several) races and ethnicities in a variety of situations.

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