STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A book that made its way into some New York City schools teaches children as young as two that the concept of racism was created by white people, the New York Post reported.
The book, “Our Skin,” written by Harlem activist Megan Madison and library worker Jessica Ralli, begins with a discussion of skin tones and then goes into pointing fingers that the idea of race stems from white people, the report says.
The book tells readers, “A long time ago, way before you were born, a group of white people made up an idea called race. They sorted people by skin color and said that white people were better, smarter, prettier and that they deserve more than everybody else.”
It continues to say, “racism is also the things people do and the unfair rules they make about race so that white people get more power,” while also not explaining that other groups other than whites could be racist.
While the book is aimed at ages 2 to 5, “Our Skin” was distributed to at least one Manhattan kindergarten class, one on Staten Island, as well as another in Brooklyn.
The Department of Education (DOE) announced the “Universal Mosaic Curriculum,” enacted under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, in an effort to “better reflect” the system’s demographics, the report states.
The DOE told The Post the book is “not part of our prescribed curriculum,” but noted that schools can buy books on their own. However, the book is on a suggested reading list that parents can access through the website TeachingBooks.
Vito LaBella, a Brooklyn parent leader, described the text as being inflammatory,” and expressed that a page about sorting people by skin color is “just preaching hate.”
A parent of a kindergartener from Manhattan said that when he looked through the book he stopped at the page that declared white people invented race, the report states.
“Racism should be talked about, but it should be talked about correctly. I think that telling 5- and 6-year-olds that white people are all responsible for all racism is not helpful. It’s going to be very traumatic for many 5- and 6-year-olds who are going to blame themselves and blame their parents,” he told the NY Post.
