The Skin I'm In: A First Look At Racism

Title:  The Skin I’m In: A First Look at Racism

Author:  Pat Thomas

Illustrator: Lesley Harker

Published

Summary: The book starts out by having children imagine a world where they were judged by their eye color and how unfair that would be. It really reminded me of the third grade teacher’s exercise.  So I was really interested in it from that point on.  It then goes into discussing race and asks the students to think about what race they are and how everyone is different.  And how some people will be mean to others because they have a different skin color than them.  They define the term racist/racism and talk about how bad it can be.  The book then goes on to tell you what to do if you see racist behavior and how to react if you are the one being made fun of. It asks students to think about if they have ever been the victim of racist behavior. And how it made them feel, and why would they ever want another person to feel that way they did, because it was pretty horrible.

This book really does include significant specific cultural information rather than following stereotypes.  It doesn’t compare the differences in any negative way.  It just shows how people can be different, but to look inside of them and yourselves, we are all similar.  I feel that whoever is reading this book has the power.  It gives many examples of difference races and I love this quote from the story.  It says, "Some believe that people from their race are worth more and should be treated better than people from other races. A person who thinks and acts this way is called a racist. Racists want to stop people of other races from living, working and learning together. Anybody of any skin color can be a racist."  It is so true.  Anybody who is anybody could be racist.  No matter your skin tone and no matter your background.  It’s the same thing as who has the wisdom.  The author has the wisdom and is sharing about it.  And is doing it in a way that people can understand and not be offended.  Language is used to create an image of people of particular groups by explaining that people can have different eye color, a white person can have brown, blue or green, but does that mean that they should have hatred towards them.  No!  So why does the color of their skin matter?  Pat has written this story.  And Lesley has illustrated it. They are outside the groups they are talking about because they are not all of the races.  I feel that in a way everybody claims to know about race and culture.  However, he seems to have done lots of research and so he knows how it is like to be a person of a different race.  Everyone’s voice is being heard and nobody is left out. It really includes all races and ethnicities and really clearly explains the differences as well as the similarities!  He does it in a very mature manner and I respectful about it as well.  However, it clearly is stated what each race should look like I would say.  It’s more so a stereotype than anything.  But that wasn’t my first thought until now.  Where he shows the dark skinned family with curly black hair, the Jewish family with yarmulkes and menorahs and things like that.  Not every black person has black curly, and some would say “nappy” hair, but I feel that’s what he was showing us.  I would absolutely recommend this book though.  It truly is an eye opening and a learning book.  It was used in a lot of classrooms and teacher’s feel it does a great job showing people all around the world in a respectful manner.