Elizabeth Hagee
Nov 1 · 1 min read

Hi Shannon,

I love that you’re so open to speaking about this to other people. It must be so painful to hear those words come from your daughter! One other suggestion that I haven’t seen anyone else say yet is to not just expose her to other cultures and races, but actually take the initiative to make friends yourself and create relationships with POC that have children her age. Let her have a chance to make friends with children that are not white without other white children around to influence. She will see how beautiful her friends are and non-white skin will soon become normal and beautiful to her, too. She will also share in her friends’ trials as they face racism (because they will, unfortunately) and become an ally as they grow up together. She will learn how to support POC because she will be invested in her friendships and will hate the way other people treat them. She might even become an ally for children who face racism when she is an adult.

This is what I appreciated about my white friends who stood by me when I was a child, one of whom is now an ESL teacher working to eliminate the education gap that immigrant and refugee children face from an early age.

Thank you, and keep up the great work, and keep learning and sharing what you learn. We all learn more this way!!

    Elizabeth Hagee

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