When do you start talking to children about race?

Today at pre-k my 4 year old told her friend, "Your skin is pretty and brown." The friend apparently retorted, "I'm not brown, I'm black!"My daughter was confused. To her, skin color is just that - a color. And she knows the difference between brown and black lol. I admit, we're a lily white family and are blessed to have never had to have this discussion before. My daughter has never been exposed to racism of any kind, so she doesn't yet know about that side of skin color. I know that "color blind" isn't the way to go, especially not here in the southern US. There's probably a very good reason my daughter's friend is already sensitive to these terms at her young age. There are issues that should be understood and taken into consideration.But I realized that I have no idea what an age-appropriate conversation about this is. Is 4-5 years old mature enough to understand that sometimes adults are mean and trivial about skin color and that's why her friend wants to be called black? Is it acceptable to teach her "proper" labels for people with different skin color, or is she going to use them to inadvertently offend someone? I mean, at this point she doesn't even know she's "white," she describes her skin as light brown. I need some guidance, here, because growing up, my family was racist as hell and I have no reference point for how to teach my kids better. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2djvVen