White parents, talk to your children about racism, and start talking to them now. And if you think you can get away with having this discussion with them one time, you’re wrong. Make this an ongoing conversation with your kids throughout their childhood. If you really want them to be able to identify racism and understand its effect on marginalized people, you have to continuously engage them and expose them to different races and ethnicities. Give them the opportunity to have a diversity of experiences. That way, your children will see differences in skin color as normal and they won’t judge people based on those differences.
I’m a white parent who is racist (redundant, I know) and very concerned about inadvertently turning my child into a racist. Is it the fact that the child’s mother is black enough to stop my child from becoming a racist? If not, what else can I do to avoid passing my racism onto my child?
Please advise.