Random anecdote about race and crayons.
When I was in first grade, I remember coloring a lot of famous historical figures as we learned about them. Learn about Benjamin Franklin, color Benjamin Franklin. Learn about Abraham Lincoln, color Abraham Lincoln, etc... So when we learned about Martin Luther King Jr., it was only natural that we colored a portrait of him as well. So we learned about how he was an important black civil rights leader, and then we were handed out our monochromatic portraits of MLK. Some kids colored in his skin with black crayon, some with brown crayon, and some with the same peach crayon they would have used for Benjamin Franklin.