In the scene where he is first getting introduced in the skateboard shop, and he is watching the other guys talking and telling their stories. Then when asked about the Sunburn question, Stevie says "What are black people?" and they all start to laugh. So why exactly did he say that? It was never brought up again.
shareStevie's so young and naive he never thought that people are differentiated by colors. Most small children are like that.
shareI agree with your interpretation of the line, but it's a bit absurd for him to say that, as he's not really that young. You say "small children," but accoding to Wiki his character is 13 so it's not like he's 5 years old. He's certainly old enough to know what race is.
shareHe was 13, he was clearly aware of different races and people by then. It was just a weird thing for him to say. And how he said it, sounded like he was serious
shareIt's social commentary.
shareI took it as nervousness. He didn’t seem to have too many social interactions before; he found this group really cool; and when suddenly put on the spot, he just sort of blurred out “What are black people” because he couldn’t think straight.
shareI think he's the new kid, he's trying to fit in. He looks up to these kids, he doesn't want to say anything to offend them, but he also doesn't want to come off as lame. I think being put in that position he doesn't really know what to say, you can see he's really trying to think of something to say.
When you are friends with someone you can say things to them that only friends in your group can say to each other. When I was a teenager my group of friends called each other c**ksuckers all the time. We didn't dare call someone outside the group that, and nobody outside the group could call anyone in our group that and get away with it.
Later, he was asking why they call the one kid 4th grader, he asked, can I call him that? He was told, not yet. You have to get tighter with the group first. I think that was the same thing that happened with this scene.