In your article (Prince says ‘unconscious bias’ affects attitudes towards race, 31 July), Jane Goodall is quoted as saying: “Especially if you get little kids together, there’s no difference. They don’t notice, ‘My skin’s white, mine’s black’, until somebody tells them.” Evidence over 50 years shows that children by the age of three can recognise different skin colours in the same way that they can distinguish between red and yellow balls. But differences in skin colours (or red and yellow balls) may not necessarily be something to be commented on so it may appear that they are not “noticed”. But not being “noticed” and not “recognising” are different concepts. So it is not about somebody telling children that they recognise different skin colours. They recognise them just like everyone else does. It is only when the attitudes surrounding children place negative values on some skin colours that children may really “notice” them. Where these values impinge on their own developing attitudes they may reflect them and begin the process of learning to be racially prejudiced. If we as a society, however unwittingly, do not understand this we may fail to take the strategic action necessary to enable young children to learn positive attitudes to differences, before any negative attitudes become entrenched. Taking no action makes it possible for racism to continue to be part of the system.
Jane Lane
Reading, Berkshire
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