Kids Ask Dad 'Why Am I Black' In Adorable Video

Taryn Finley
Updated

What started out as a debate between two young brothers about if they were brown or black became a lesson on race.

Theo and Uria asked their dad, Glen Henry, whether they were black or brown. Henry stepped in to bring some clarification to the conversation.

“The color of your skin is brown,” Henry, whose YouTube channel Beleaf in Fatherhood is an Outspeak partner, told the boys in a video posted in July. “But we, our race, we are black people.”

After a gasp, Theo asked, “So why are we black people?”

Henry then shows Theo and Uria a photo of them with their friends, all with varying shades of skin, and explains what melanin is.

“When you see other black people ... he’s a black person, too,” the dad explained. “We are black people, but our skin is brown.”

When Theo mentioned one of his white friends, Henry told the boys: “Just because our skin is different, doesn’t mean we are different people; we just have different color skin.”

“No matter what color the skin is, you can still be friends with everybody. We are all friends,” Henry said. “Everybody’s equal.”

Watch the full 12-minute video above.

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