The Doug Noll Show

Ever wonder where bigotry, stereotyping, and prejudice come from? Children are not born racist or sexist or as religious zealots; they are taught how to be that way. Usually, the teaching is indirect and by way of example from adults. If we want children to grow with tolerance, understanding, and acceptance of diversity among us, we have to be active teachers. My guest is doing just that. Matt Faulkner is a talented and clever picture book maker for children. His children’s book, "A Taste for Colored Water", arose out his lifelong exploraton of race and societal intolerance.

A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Matt has written and illustrated a number of children's books. His work has won wide praise for its humor, exuberance and sensitivity. In addition, he is a contributing illustrator to such national periodicals as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes. Matt currently lives in Northern California on San Francisco Bay with his son Gabe and their two cats Rosie and Leo. He teaches illustration at the Art Academy University in San Francisco.

In this segment, we talk about how Matt got into writing and illustrating children’s books. That leads to a conversation about the importance of teaching children about art in school.

Matt gives us a synopsis of his new children’s book, "A Taste of Colored Water". We learn that two 6 year olds, Jelly and Lulu, hear of a colored water fountain from their friend Abbey. They pester Uncle Jack for a ride into town. While Uncle Jack is buying a part for his tractor, Lulu and Jelly find the colored water fountain, which is next to the courthouse. Of course, the water fountain has a sign over it saying “Colored” and we see that Lulu and Jelly are living in the segregated south in the Civil Rights era. The children are confronted by a police officer with a vicious dog, told to stay away from the water fountain, and run back to Uncle Jack’s truck. What is not in the text is told Matt’s illustrations. During all of this, we see a non-violent civil rights protest and parade being broken up with fire hoses squirting water and knocking the protesters down.

Matt and I talk a bit about the stereotyping of the south. He tells us that he has been confronted about that stereotyping, but says that growing up Boston taught him that being a black African American was not a good thing.

We talk about the lessons that children can be taught from "A Taste of Colored Water". Matt describes some of the simple examples he gives to children that he reads to.

The Peacemaker’s Bookshelf looked at the book "Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transofrmation in Everyday Life" by Marilyn Schlitz, Cassandra Vieten, and Tina Amorok

Matt’s son Gabe is 16 years old and is a minority student himself, a white kid in black school. Matt and I talk about how to help Gabe negotiate the shoals of bigotry. Matt tells us that he helps Gabe understand that the basis of bigotry and intolerance is fear. Once that is understood, handling racism becomes more manageable as the core issues of fear are accepted and acknowledged.