A Kentucky mother has described how her white son asked to have his hair cut to resemble that of his black friend in the belief their teacher would not be able to tell them apart.

“He (Jax) said that he wanted his head shaved really short so he could look like his friend Reddy,” Louisville mother Lydia Stith Rosebush wrote in a post to Facebook last week.

“He said he couldn't wait to go to school on Monday with his hair like Reddy's so that his teacher wouldn't be able to tell them apart.”

The post includes a photo of Jax alongside Reddy, with Ms Rosebush pointing to their obvious racial difference.

“I’m sure you all see the resemblance,” her tongue-in-cheek comment reads.

Ms Rosebush said her son’s failure to recognize any difference between himself and Reddy besides their hair offered proof that “hate and prejudice is something that is taught”.

Her post has since been shared tens of thousands of times.

She told local broadcaster ABC7 she believes the strong response owes much to the “love and the innocence of children”.