Discussing Race and Race Issues with Children

I have a six year old boy, who has been accused of racism twice, and I am not sure about how to discuss it with him.The first incident was about a year ago at his swimming lessons. He is fond of a (great) instructor named Kevin. At the pool, my son did not have his glasses, and yelled 'Hi Kevin!' at the wrong instructor. This instructor turned and yelled "I'm not Kevin! I'm not even Asian! RACIST!" It was obviously a joke, but way over my son's head. I talked to the supervisor about getting him to be a bit more professional around the kids, and they were very understanding.Now he is getting bullied by 2 older girls at school. He has spoken to his teacher, but at recess they are still 'waiting' for him outside the doors. Now this is all being relayed through a 6 year old, but he says that they are pushing him over until he apologizes for calling them 'white and brown'. Even though I was not asking for more information, he was very insistent that he never called them white and brown, and belaboured the point.I had him speak to his teacher but it is still happening. I am going to be talking to his teacher myself shortly, but plan to leave the race stuff out of it. I just don't want him getting pushed around by older kids every recess.We have talked before about how people look different because their families came from different parts of the world, but how on the inside we are all just people and more or less the same. He has been socializing with very diverse kids right from birth. But I feel like I need to have a talk with him about race issues, maybe like 'paying more attention to who people are on the inside and not worrying about how they look' or just a 'it's not polite to bring up people's skin color' or something.To be clear, I don't think my child is racist, but I know that he is super extroverted and never stops talking. It's kind of like if he pointed at a woman and yelled "Look at the size of her boobs!!" I don't know if he called these girls white and brown or if they are just looking for an excuse to push a mouthy kid. Regardless, I am past due for a good conversation with him.Any suggestions? via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2iCPWQD