What do you say when your kid makes comment about skin color in public?
The other day we were at the park with some friends and a black man walked by on the foot path next to us and my daughter says "Mom that guy has black skin". Just in a tone that was more making an observation than anything else. "Mom the sky is blue, mom the grass is green, mom that person has black skin". He probably didn't even hear her because he had his headphones on. I told my daughter something to the effect of "Yeah, he does, people come in all kinds of colors".
I feel like that answer is fine and anything more would have been verging on a performative after school special. We have discussions on race at home. She knows that every person is equal and worthy of respect and love.
It's not different from how I would have talked about a kid having two moms at the park. My daughter made a friend and while they were playing she told me "Mom, you should meet her mom. Well I think she has two" (the mom was sitting on a bench w another woman). The other girl goes "No I have one mom." And I say to my daughter "No she has just one mom but it would be okay if she had two".
I guess I'm just asking; as a white, cis mom are these short, quick, not in depth answers in the moment okay. Whenever I do anything more I feel like I am making a stranger's existence into a life lesson for my child, which feels uncomfortable. Let me know what you think.