"Yeah, it would be weird to have a black friend." ... I have a hard time believing the kids weren't getting it from the parents.
I know that school is still basically exclusively white
I think this is a non sequitur. (IMO) the stuff about "people are colorblind until society teaches them otherwise" is ridiculous, so you put these kids in an environment with no black children? Of course they are going to see black children as strange- they haven't had the opportunity to interact and learn otherwise. It doesn't have to have anything to do with racist comments from their parents.
I know that school is still basically exclusively white
I think this is a non sequitur. (IMO) the stuff about "people are colorblind until society teaches them otherwise" is ridiculous, so you put these kids in an environment with no black children? Of course they are going to see black children as strange- they haven't had the opportunity to interact and learn otherwise. It doesn't have to have anything to do with racist comments from their parents.