Skin-tone crayons have critics seeing red
In 2020, Crayola introduced a 24-crayon set called “Colors of the World,” to match skin tones. Credit: Crayola
When Nicole Stephens began working in early childhood education 12 years ago, she wanted her young students to be able to draw themselves.
But many of her students couldn’t find the right crayon to match their skin tones. Even a set of “multicultural” crayons introduced in 1992, containing existing colors like peach and brown and black, didn’t go far enough. So, Stephens thoughtfully would draw with a mix of white, brown and black crayons, trying to produce more appropriate shades.
Stephens’ difficulties were eased in 2020, when Crayola introduced a 24-crayon set called “Colors of the World.” With names like “light rose,” “medium almond,” “deep golden” and “deepest almond,” the box seemed to have a shade for each of Stephens’ students, whose families hailed from Haiti, India, China and parts of Latin America.
Stephens, who taught at The Learning Experience in East Northport, wanted it for her classroom immediately. As an early childhood educator, Stephens said, she sought to give children “the best first experience they can have” by giving them the right resources.
“Kids as young as three years old look at their friends and realize they’re not all the same,” Stephens said. “Giving them something as simple as a crayon to be able to accurately express who they are does make a difference.”
The Bay Shore resident quickly saw a difference when her students began to draw.
Seems lovely and noncontroversial, right?
Wrong.
Over the summer, two classroom teachers in the Connetquot school district added the Colors of the World crayon box to their supply lists to be purchased by parents. At least one parent objected, concerned about the crayons’ supposed connections to an educational focus on race and social justice.
Instead of welcoming the teachers’ initiative, some Connetquot school board members took up the anti-crayon cause.
Board member Jaclyn Napolitano-Furno critiqued what she called a “social justice kind of method in buying crayons.”
“I would never think that in a kindergarten class, I’ve got to worry about social justice being taught to a kid through the colors of crayons, but that’s where we’re at,” Napolitano-Furno said in July.
In response, parents districtwide rallied around the teachers by donating more than 175 boxes that contained Colors of the World crayons. At the August board meeting, superintendent Joseph Tanen Centamore tried to set the right tone.
“Connetquot is a beautifully diverse district. This is a source of strength,” Centamore said. “We absolutely want our students to self-identify and to express themselves creatively.”
But his plea didn’t convince everyone, and the discussion devolved into the absurd.
“These crayons, I really don’t believe their intentions were ever to be political, we are opening up the door to enabling people to use them now for a political purpose because that’s just the way things are,” said board member Jacquelyn DiLorenzo.
How 5-year-olds drawing pictures of themselves would morph into a “political purpose” remains a mystery. But Napolitano-Furno recommended a districtwide policy that avoided making parents pay, instead making them optional or district-funded.
“What I’m not for are the conversations that could go along with it in bringing race into our classrooms in a derogatory manner,” she added.
Board president Marissol Mallon responded appropriately: “Things are as political as you make them. Things can be as simple as just being a crayon.”
Stephens wasn’t part of the Connetquot debate. But she echoed Mallon’s sentiments.
“Sometimes it’s as simple as a box of crayons,” Stephens said. “And if you get to go home with a picture that expresses who you really are, that’s going to follow you for the rest of your life.”
A lesson for Connetquot — and for all of us.
n COLUMNIST RANDI F. MARSHALL’S opinions are her own.
Randi Marshall is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
