These days, have you been hearing from your well-meaning white friends who want to know how they and their children can, to quote Mrs. Trump, “be better”? Here is a great quick read from the NYT, “How to Raise an Anti-Racist Kid”, which lays out a few very useful bullet points, including:
- “not racist” implies neutrality; “anti-racist” recognizes that active steps are needed
- raising your child to be “colorblind” or not to “see color” is a mistake. Children should understand that people are different, and that these differences aren’t bad or scary.
- if families live in all white areas and only see white people, parents should make the effort to use services in different neighborhoods to help their children understand the diversity of the world.
Here’s one not in the article but that I would add:
- talk with your children about how the media, including video games portray black people (or don’t portray them). If you are watching a tv show or movie in which there are no people of color, (or all the people of color are villains) make that observation and discuss how this contributes to the concept that black people are not seen or are seen as bad or scary.
This awakening by White America to the pervasive racism in our country is welcome and long overdue. It can be wearying to be the spokespeople for how to end racism, though, especially since it is a problem not of our making. GCP will continue to send along tools to help.
