Teaching our Children About Race
I was listening to a podcast today about how we can teach children about race. Here are my takeaways... we are not done as parents if we simply are good examples of loving others of all skin colors. Often people form racial opinions or become racist not because of anything their parents taught them, but because of what their parents DIDN'T teach them. Here are some ideas of how we can teach our children about race in case you haven't thought of these yet:
1. Talk to your child about melanin. Those who are white don't have a lot of melanin in their skin and the more melanin a person has, the darker their skin will be. Have the conversation with your kids about how God makes people in all shapes, sizes, colors, etc. Just like people have different color eyes and hair, people have different colors of skin.
2. Talk about different cultures! There are plenty of people that act, talk, eat, and do things differently than we do. Every culture is different and we can embrace that and love everyone for who they are and the uniqueness each person brings to this world, just as we would want them to embrace us for being different from them. Tell your children about racism. Teach them to stop it when they see it happening, even when it's hard. Teach them to stand up for others and to be brave!
3. Represent many cultures in the books and toys you buy for your children. I'm so glad Disney finally came out with Princess Tiana, Mulan, & Moana! Yes! This gives our children a more real life experience! Google multicultural or diverse books for kids or teens! There are so many! This will help your child(ren) to feel more comfortable connecting with all walks of life, but more importantly it will help them to embrace and love others, no matter their race. I love to read books to my girls or pick audiobooks for us to listen to together in the summer. Off the top of my head I remember my older girls enjoyed the book "One Crazy Summer" about 3 African American sisters that set off in search of their mother. My older girls loved "Salt to the Sea" and "Number the Stars," both good WWII books. My kids love the show "Just Add Magic" and I found a series called "Love, Sugar, Magic" that we listen to together. It's a fiction series that teaches a little about the hispanic culture. There are a lot of good kids books about embracing differences, but it's also important to get fun fiction books where the stories are about children of different races like "Whistle for Willie," "The Day You Begin," "Lola at the Library," & "Mela and the Elephant." Diversity is so important, especially if your children don't attend a diverse school. As parents/teachers, most of us can probably do a better job of representing a variety of cultures (myself included) in the books we buy/check out, toys we get our kids, and even the shows our children watch. We watched "Queen of Katwe" on Disney Plus a couple months ago and it was so good! I'd say it's probably for ages 8+.
4. Research different cultures as a family and play their games, make their food, and read books/watch a movie representing that culture. This has been so fun for my kids over the years! I think one of the best summer camps I ever hosted was when I did "Around the World" camps and we explored different countries. Our world is fascinating!! This is something I will definitely be more intentional about!
Anyhoo, I hope we can all do our part to make this world a better place and it starts in the home. If you have any great book or movie ideas that represent a culture other than white American, please share!
