How to explain racial stereotypes in classic films

Question

I recently watched an old film with my 2 year old (One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing) and was aghast at the level of racial stereotyping in it. I like to show old films but I am not sure how to explain that social attitudes have changed since a film (books as well I suppose) was made.

At the moment he is just too young to understand but I would like to be ready with a solid explanation when he does start to understand.

It isn't just old films (The lone ranger looked pretty bad to me), but is substantally worse the older media is.

I would like to expose my son to a wide range of material but don't want him to learn bad attitudes.

Answer 1

At such a young age, there isn't a great degree of direct teaching you can do which will be effective. Modeling appropriate behavior is very likely your best option. When we see bad, rude, or unsavory actions whether on television, in a movie, or in our everyday lives, we can talk to our children and say, "That was so mean. I don't like that." The nature of the derision adjusts as the child ages, but by expressing our own distaste in terms which our children can relate with, it is our views which are more likely to be adopted than the undesirable.

As for the comment to your question, I'd like to reply to that as well: I was 100% absolutely, positively certain to teach my daughter from the earliest of ages the difference between reality and artistic presentations (e.g. cartoons, movies, books). That served its purpose quite well. For example, one time she was inadvertently exposed to a violent murder scene in a movie at a friend's house. I went to talk to her about it and she simply explained that it was all fake and they used special makeup for it, but she didn't think that was a good use of makeup.