"Yeah, it would be weird to have a black friend." ... I have a hard time believing the kids weren't getting it from the parents.
I know that school is still basically exclusively white
I think this is a non sequitur. (IMO) the stuff about "people are colorblind until society teaches them otherwise" is ridiculous, so you put these kids in an environment with no black children? Of course they are going to see black children as strange- they haven't had the opportunity to interact and learn otherwise. It doesn't have to have anything to do with racist comments from their parents.
I think this is a non sequitur. (IMO) the stuff about "people are colorblind until society teaches them otherwise" is ridiculous, so you put these kids in an environment with no yellow children? Of course they are going to see yellow children as strange- they haven't had the opportunity to interact and learn otherwise. It doesn't have to have anything to do with racist comments from their parents.
Labeling anyone of any color is racicst period. There is only one race called the Human Race!
If everyone recognized this and stopped describing one another in terms of colors, we could end fucking bullshit!
To say a child is black, is understood to mean they are of African descent. That's not a label, that's phylogeny.
As for the rest, it is a simple fact that the different regions of the world are home to communities with distinct differences in phenotype. Combine that with the (very human) tendency to be cautious around unfamiliar peoples, and there you have it.
I'm not saying it is Just, or Right, or any crap like that. I am only observing that there are simple explanations for why children might behave as described, other than "their parents must be hateful bigots".
Yes, trying to be blind of people's traits, such as skin color, is indeed not the way to get beyond racism. We need to recognize that some people are different and that is a good thing, not that we should try to ignore the differences.
I know that school is still basically exclusively white
I think this is a non sequitur. (IMO) the stuff about "people are colorblind until society teaches them otherwise" is ridiculous, so you put these kids in an environment with no black children? Of course they are going to see black children as strange- they haven't had the opportunity to interact and learn otherwise. It doesn't have to have anything to do with racist comments from their parents.