Talking to Kids About Promoting Racial Equity and Deconstructing Prejudice
This collection of resources provides tools for teaching kids and adults about race and prejudice, about how to recognize systemic structures, and how to help and support youth of color who have been impacted by these systems. This is a living document that will be updated regularly.
If you have any feedback or resources you’d like to share, please email Thomas Azzarella at tazzarella@alaskachildrenstrust.org
Are Your Kids Too Young to Talk About Race? Infographic
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How Well-Intentioned White Families Can Perpetuate Racism
by Joe Pinsker
“The sociologist Margaret Hagerman spent two years embedded in upper-middle-class white households, listening in on conversations about race. She is a sociologist at Mississippi State University, and her new book, White Kids: Growing Up With Privilege in a Racially Divided America, summarizes the two years of research she did talking to and observing upper-middle-class white families in an unidentified midwestern city and its suburbs. To examine how white children learn about race, she followed 36 of them between the ages of 10 and 13, interviewing them as well as watching them do homework, play video games, and otherwise go about their days.”
10 Tips for Teaching and Talking to Kids about Race
“EmbraceRace is a multiracial community dedicated to sharing and developing best practices for raising and caring for kids, all kids, in the context of race. We partnered with MomsRising - a transformative multicultural organization of more than a million members working to increase family economic security and end discrimination against women and mothers - to create these tips for our communities.
They are designed to help parents of all backgrounds talk to and guide their children about race early and often by lifting up age-appropriate activities that can be incorporated easily into your daily life. We hope these tips provide some much needed support for families committed to building tolerance, racial equity, and a social culture where all kids and families can thrive!”
OP-ED: White Teachers Need To Check Their Racism Before Teaching It
by Akiea Gross
Akiea Gross is the founder of Equitable Schools Inc. and Woke Kindergarten and the visionary behind the initiative, #BlackTeachersMatter. Read her opinion piece about racial bias in educators and acknowledging privilege.
“In order for you to teach your kids the truth about these racist systems, you must first acknowledge that you, and the white students you teach, are all beneficiaries of its oppression.”
Why Conversations About Racism Belong In The Classroom
Starting constructive conversations about racism and bias can be daunting, regardless of audience. And when that audience is young children, it can seem impossible. Figuring out when, where and how to begin conversations about racial identity can seem overwhelming, especially when trying to incorporate them into the curriculum or everyday conversation with kids. But Reed reminds people that responsibility should outweigh any fear.
This article contains practical tips about addressing race in the classroom.
Speak Up: Opening a Dialogue with Youth About Racism
Excerpt from https://rossieronline.usc.edu/youth-and-racism/
“If you’re new to the conversation about racism and bias, talking to children about it can seem overwhelming. Doing so means asking hard questions, constantly learning and always listening. It also means addressing your own privilege and bias. A place to begin the discussion is in our classrooms, where conversations around racism are a part of the fabric of students’ lives. If children are asking these questions, we need to be ready to answer them.”
This webpage contains data and graphs on children and racial inequity.
Race and Violence Should Be a School-Wide Subject
by Travis J. Bristol, Ph.D.
Contains resources for school leaders to help develop a community-driven message and a model for discussing race and violence.
Teaching Young Children About Bias, Diversity, and Social Justice
by Jinnie Spiegler
Guides teachers on how to use young students’ understanding of differences to teach social justice through literature, news stories, anti-bias lessons and problem-solving.
5 Keys to Challenging Implicit Bias
by Shane Safir
Shows how educators can tune into and challenge implicit biases in themselves, their colleagues and their schools.
How Does Race Affect a Student's Math Education?
Looks at a recent study that shows math teachers, educators and researchers “are perpetuating racism in schools” in a way that is shaping students’ interactions and expectations with math.
Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism–from Ferguson to Charleston
Inspired by the #CharlestonSyllabus, this curated list of resources is for those who want to learn more from perspectives “often underrepresented among many white circles.”
First Encounters With Race and Racism: Teaching Ideas for Classroom Conversations
by Jinnie Spiegler
A lesson plan from Jinnie Spiegler, the director of curriculum at the Anti-Defamation League.
Your Local Public School Is Failing at Addressing Racism – Here Are 3 Ways How
by Jon Greenberg
A discussion of the common ways public schools as institutions fails to address racism.
America’s Teachers Still Don’t Think Black and Latino Kids Are Smart
by Britni Danielle
“Researchers from the Center for American Progress found that many educators continue to have lower expectations for students of color. Students of color are up against difficult odds. They are more likely to be trapped in failing, underfunded schools; more likely to be suspended for minor infractions; less likely to have “expert teachers.” While policy makers, educators, parents, and politicians seem to be scrambling to figure out how to close the achievement gap by demanding more rigorous nationwide standards, a new report by the Center for American Progress found that the very folks tasked with making sure kids of color succeed might be the ones holding them back.”
Segregation Now
by Nikole Hannah-Jones
“In Tuscaloosa today, nearly one in three black students attends a school that looks as if Brown v. Board of Education never happened.”
White America's Racial Illiteracy: Why our National Conversation is Poisoned from the Start
by Dr Robin Diangelo
“The author of ‘What Does It Mean to Be White?’ examines the ways white people implode when they talk about race.”
Microaggressions Are A Big Deal: How To Talk Them Out And When To Walk Away
Andrew Limbong, NPR reporter
“Kevin Nadal, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, has spent years researching and writing books on the effects of microaggressions. As these big structural issues play out, he says it's important to confront the small stuff. "We navigate all of these things in our lives," Nadal says. "For many of us on a daily, hourly basis. And for some of us where we might not even recognize that we are navigating them or even perpetrating them." To be clear, the "micro" in microaggression doesn't mean that these acts can't have big, life-changing impacts. They can, which is all the more reason to address them when you see them. If you can, that is.”