Race and Diversity Awareness
All That We Are
Race and Diversity Awareness
Skin Tone Diversity Program for Children in Grades K-3
“This is an excellent program! It's kid-friendly, scientifically grounded, thought-provoking, and provides a great way to teach children that prejudice based on skin color is detrimental for all of us”--
Jane Elliott, internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education.
All That We Are is a video-based program designed for classroom use in grades K-3.The Program was produced by the Oregon Center for Applied Science with support from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Grant # HD041299-02). All That We Are is available in DVD and VHS formats. It contains 4 video sections, each 8 minutes long, and comes with a Teacher's Guide with recommended in-class activities to help children comprehend and retain the information presented in the program.
Racial biases develop at an early age. Schools and homes are critical places of learning and socialization and, therefore, are the best places to combat early biases. All That We Are was developed to give teachers a specific, stand-alone tool to combat the development of racial bias and to complement existing multicultural curricula for addressing the negative effects that accompany racial prejudice.
All That We Are addresses the origins of skin tone variation. The program and teacher’s guide offer suggestions for ways to speak with children about human differences and similarities in positive and age-appropriate ways.
The program is presented in a fun, kid-friendly manner using “Discovery Agents”— children who discover, learn, and apply their knowledge to real-world issues. Presented as “Cases,” each day’s activity begins with the introduction of the Discovery Agents (the child hosts of the program) who encourage the viewers to join them in solving the Skin Tone Cases in which they seek out the origins of skin tone. In this way, each child watching the program becomes a Discovery Agent as well.
Childhood researchers agree that in order to prevent racial bias in childhood, adults must discuss the concept of race with children. Many children emphasize skin tone—how light or dark people are relative to one another—to make racial designations. All That We Are emphasizes and explains skin tone differences among people in order to show children that race is not a good way to understand these differences, while simultaneously offering developmentally appropriate and accurate information about skin tone variation.
Children often have inaccurate information about how and why skin tone differs among people, and this inaccurate information is a fertile basis for developing racial prejudice later in life. All That We Are engages children in conversations about race and related issues in language that is age-appropriate and in a manner that is positive and encouraging.
All That We Are uses the “cline theory of skin tone” as the foundation for the information provided about the origins of skin tone. Recent biological theories about how skin tone differences developed among humans have focused on the fact that skin tone differs on a continuum of dark to light or light to dark depending on distance from the equator. Differing in a gradual, continuous way is referred to as a cline. The cline theory of skin tone differences supports the idea that race is not a biological reality and is, instead, a concept invented by society that tries to make discrete categories out of information best organized on a continuum.
More information about the “Cases”
Program Developers
Khaya Clark, M.A., ABD (Principal Investigator)
Chuck Tate, PhD., ABD (Co-Investigator)
Individual copies of All That We Are may be ordered directly from this site. 5 piece lab packs ($179) and 10 piece lab packs ($279) are available. Call (866) 846-4880 to order or request a quantity pricing quote.
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