Brown Friends & White Friends

Avena got this year's class picture from preschool this week. She wanted to hold the photo on the way home from school, so as we drove home I heard her announce each of her classmates and teachers in the photo one by one from the backseat... adding after each name whether the person was brown or white. I was kind of shocked. It's pretty obvious when you look at the photo who is brown and who is white, but I've never asked her how she saw herself or her classmates (we checked with her teachers and they didn't talk about it at school either). So, do 2-year-olds see skin color? Yep, this one certainly does. Of course, in true 2-year-old fashion, she instantly moved on and declared she was a "baby mouse" and that was that. In case you're curious, in addition to herself, she considered the kids and teachers of Asian and Indian descent brown, and the kids of Mexican and various European descent white. I briefly revisited the conversation when we got home and I could look at the picture with her. We decided it was good to have both brown and white friends. Check out Avena and Romeo in a typical morning pose below. Although she hasn't declared if he is "brown" or "white," she did tell me that he has a belly, but not a belly button. True enough.