I See You, I Respect You, I Stand With You

I am going to be honest, I have no idea what to say right now. I desire to say something poignant and thought-provoking, but that’s not where my head is right now. So, I am going to tell you what I do know.

• Racial injustice against people of color is not a new revelation. The United States has a long history of systemic injustice.
• People have the right to be angry and sad and exhausted because they have been fighting this fight for generations.
• It is long overdue for my white peers and I to join in the fight against racial injustice.
• It is not your black friends’ responsibility to educate you on racism. If you would like to learn more then I recommend visiting Be The Bridge. This organization has been created specifically to “encourage racial reconciliation among all ethnicities, to promote racial unity in America, and to equip others to do the same.”
• It is not enough to passively be not-racist. We need to actively be anti-racist.

And everyday I am learning more by watching and listening. I absolutely hate that it took George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery’s murders to open my eyes to the injustice that black Americans experience everyday. I will never understand what it is like, but I want to stand with you.

So, the question is, what does that look like for a parent of young kids in the midst of a pandemic?

While listening to Annie F. Downs’ (I know, I’m obsessed) and Eddie Kaufholz’ new podcast “Annie and Eddie Keep Talking”, she mentioned that one important way for parents to contribute is to raise your children to see injustice and speak up about it. One easy way to do that is to diversify your children’s toys. Kids are so observant and take cues from everything. So, if they only see white baby dolls or books with white protagonists or white professionals (i.e. doctors, dentists, teachers) then that is how they will automatically categorize these professions or characters: (1) All doctors and nurses are white; (2) Light skin is the definition of beauty; (3) Good characters are light and bad characters are dark. Stereotypes that are absolutely incorrect and can be dispelled by incorporating multicultural books and toys into daily life. Here are a few that I found on Amazon and purchased for our home:

Crayola Multi-Cultural Crayons: Because people are all different shades. White people are not “white” and people of color are not always “black”.

Multi-Cultural Baby Dolls: I love that this set includes a variety of colors of baby dolls. Side note, encourage your child to play with the doll that does not necessarily look like them. They will pick up on this!

Dream Big Little One board book: There are TONS of books with diverse characters and illustrations on Amazon.

Fisher Price Little People Characters: Fisher Price has a variety of Little People characters of different colors and professions. Something for everyone!

Let me know in the comments if you have any other ideas to add to my playroom and bookshelf!

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to learn and grow alongside you. I definitely will not do this perfectly, but I am trying because I want to do better and be better.