Different skin colours gets close to home

I had an interesting discussion with my two younger boys tonight as I put them to bed. They've noticed that the skin colours of their classmates differs considerably. They have African, Asian and European kids in their classes. And various amounts of each - so half-Japanese half-American children, quarter-Asian three-quarter Caucasian etc. Various shades of brown, mostly. Our boys are one of the few totally Caucasian children in the lower grades of CAJ.

They have also tended to call white people "English", meaning that that is what they speak (stemming directly from the fact that Japanese people speak Japanese). So the whole issue is rather clouded.

We've just started sponsoring a child in Africa. Our 5 y.o. keeps thinking he's seeing this young boy at school - because there are a handful of Africans there. Obviously the whole area needed some attention.

I needed to clarify why skin colour is different, especially that it doesn't relate to where you were born or what language you speak or where you've lived your life. That is comes from your parents. This was a particularly confusing point to them because our middle son was born in Japan, but doesn't look Japanese.

I pointed out to them that many Australians are not white - that there are African-Australians and Asian-Australians. When I pointed out that there were even Japanese-Australians, my nearly 8 y.o. was quick to say - "Like us?" So, while he is not Japanese on the outside or even sound like a Japanese person, he obviously considers himself part-Japanese!

They have friends of all sorts of colours. There is no real racial bias. It is merely understanding why people look different. What a special opportunity we have to do that. I think it is pretty special that our children can consider themselves part-Japanese too.