“Why is she so black? Hahaha” was an
unexpected expression innocently mentioned by my toddler when we were reading
his favorite book in his bedtime routine.
I was so surprised as we believe that skin color is not
a laughing or joking material. Suddenly I remember that I haven’t really
allocated a time to explore different race in the world. Thus, he is unfamiliar
with racial differences.
What happened that night becomes my concern and it
reminds me of the primary function of family: to instill the values to the
young generation. As sociologists believe that within our lifetime, we will
have two kinds of family: family of procreation where we build our own family
through marriage; and family of orientation where we are born and raised, then
oriented to the neighborhood, community, and society we live in (Shepard 252), then
it is clear that how parents teach certain value will be adapted by the
children to latter in their life to behave or to have a certain perspective
when becoming an active member of the society. ‘How parents teach’ is not
always lecture-like situation, instead children will learn best by seeing how
the parents behave. It includes every little thing in daily life.
For toddlers, children books could be a great resource to learn about diversity.
Children’s ability in understanding abstract concept is not yet well developed because they are still learning the world. The concrete objects are the easiest to be found around them and they could easily point at those objects by their little fingers. Thus, illustration provided by books is beneficial for them to see what they could not see.
We are lucky that
today we can access children books that include characters from different races,
gender, and places. It promotes diversity for the young generation. Indeed,
these books are only a tool to help parents in introducing diversity. Parents’
role is the most significant to instill the idea of everyone has been created
equal by God and their physical difference given by God among them does not
make one higher or lower.
Indonesian context
Unfortunately, most of those books in the mainstream are the Western-produced books, which implies in some ways that, "American books meant for the American children." It can articulate that "diversity" is present in a far far away country, as if the diversity and its complexity happened only there.
Discrimination against people of color looks like to be “there” only, while “here” at the same time I believe that even though we are enchanted by “Bhineka Tunggal Ika” we find jokes in everyday life using ethnic and cultural differences, like how many of us laugh at how some Central Java people speak using Banyumasan dialect or how many of us believe that people from Papua are all underdeveloped. This kind of jokes are common for us to hear in everyday life. In fact, it is normalized.
We forget that these jokes are the
real examples on how we treat one particular ethnic group as lower than the other. We need to highlight that "diversity" and "its complexity" should not be put only in a foreign context because we, here, are still struggling to realize our very own “Bhineka Tunggal Ika.”
Therefore, as an Indonesia mother who is aware of the
importance of family in instilling values for the young generation, I am
willing to introduce my children about diversity. I wish to find more children
books portraying Indonesian children from different cultural background playing
happily in the same classroom. Thus, it is easier to bring the abstract concept
about diversity to the young generation.
In case you have a recommendation of any children book
portraying Indonesian diversity, please drop me a comment.
Regards,
Marinda P.D.
Ghaisani
References:
Shepard, Jon M. Sociology. 4th ed. St. Paul: West Publishing Company, 1990. Print.
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