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"There is research showing that young children – three-year-olds - use race to determine who they want as a playmate," says Karen Babbs Hollett, a researcher at the Pennsylvania State University Center for Education and Civil Rights, in a new video clip, "What Research Tells Us About Children and Social Justice." The clip is part of a new series of videos on promoting social justice in early childhood, recently posted on the Exchange Ed.Flicks online video platform.    

"But there is also great research showing something called inter-group contact, showing that when children have opportunities to play with and interact with and talk to children and people of other races, that reduces their long-term racial bias. It increases the probability that they’ll develop friendships with children of other races as they get older.

So you have this amazing opportunity in early childhood to stop racial bias from forming before it even starts …It is such an important learning developmentally for children when we think about what can we do as a society to disrupt the formation of racial bias. Investing in racially and socio-economically integrated preschool programs where children of all races are given equal status…that’s one of the best things we can do."

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