I had a similar thing happen about this time last year. My youngest was only a few months old and was in a car seat attached to the pram frame. My nephew's class had come out before my son's class so we were waiting in line my son to come out. As I was collecting my son and his belongings (all over the place and not all in his bag as usual) a parent with different skin tone to ours touched my baby very gently and was cooing at him to which my nephew said 'Don't touch my cousin, you are not allowed because your hand is not the same colour'. I was mortified when she said can I just have a quiet word!! She was very kind about it and was more 'I know he doesn't mean it like that and is just unsure of things'. We did have a chat about it as he was nearly 7!! He said he thought I'd only want people with pinkie skin to touch my baby!!! So, education began on that one!!
I do think that lack of education makes children accidently racist!! We have a puzzle with children from all around the world on it and snap cards with people of differing skin tones who do different jobs! There are things you can do to introduce this child to people with different skin tones. x
Just when I find the key to success, someone comes along and changes all the locks!
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