Birds Of A Feather?

Or friends by default? 

I have noticed a curious thing these past few months.  My daughter is “brown”.  Her sister is glow-in-the dark, lily white.  They are best friends everywhere but at home.  At home they fight like, well, sisters.  My brown daughter has been raised in a white home but she has attended very multicultural preschools and school. 

The girls are at a new school this year, and are making new friends.  Watching the kids playing at recess, I have noticed that my little brown girl appears to only play with other little brown girls – Asian, East Indian/Middle Eastern, Native Indian.  I thought that this was strange.  I don’t think that my daughter is seeking out other brown children.  She is obviously very comfortable with white children and she is sincerely race-blind.  So why are all the little brown kids playing together?  Where are the white kids?  Because really, there are more white kids at this school than there are brown or black…probably  70/30.

I hate to say this, but I don’t think that the brown kids are together out of choice.  I suspect that these children are together because the little white girls have not included them in their play.  Probably not consciously – hopefully.  I know my daughter would never choose a white kid over a brown kid…but she also wouldn’t choose a brown kid over a white kid either.  Her best friend is white.  So it does not make sense that she only plays with brown kids.  It’s not like they are all from a similar cultural background. 

I am curious.  Will this trend continue as the children get older.  And what does this say about how children choose their friends?