Resources for Parents - Talking to kids about Whiteness

Given all the race, national origin, class-based violence, anti-blackness and anti-immigrant rhetoric in the media and the subsequent backlash from white-identified people and groups, there is a growing need for mindful, supportive education for white children. 

Here is a short list of resources that was just sent out on the Social Justice Training Institute's listserve by various social justice educators and activists.  

What White Children Need to Know about Race, Ali Michael and Eleonora Bartoli, Independent School Magazine
While white parents’ intention is to convey to their children the belief that race shouldn’t matter, the message their children receive is that race, in fact, doesn’t matter. The intent and aim are noble, but in order for race not to matter in the long run, we have to acknowledge that, currently, it does matter a great deal. If white parents want their children to contribute to what researchers Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer describe as a “racially just America”2 in which race does not unjustly influence one’s life opportunities, their children will need to learn awareness and skills that they cannot acquire through silence and omission.

On Parenting
We need to deal with our discomfort and talk to our kids about racism, By Meghan Leahy, The Washington Post
Since the horrific shooting in Charleston, the questions have been pouring in, mostly from white parents. “How do I talk to my children about what happened?” “How do I explain racism to my 6-year-old?” “How do I talk about this level of violence?” “How can I support African Americans in my community?”