The agenda of our EPA to increase air pollution everywhere is racist, especially in Black communities where one in five Black children are affected by asthma, over a million families live within a mile of oil and gas operations, and Black children go to schools located closer to heavily trafficked roads. It’s so common, there’s a name for it: environmental racism.
Racist stereotypes and bias begin at an alarmingly young age. By age 12, many children become set in their beliefs—giving parents a decade to mold the learning process, so that it decreases racial bias and improves cultural understanding. The following anti-racist resources for children help parents talk to their kids about race and racism.
Here are 10 Anti-Racist Resources for Parents:
- Teaching Tolerance created Beyond the Golden Rule: A Parent’s Guide to Preventing and Responding to Prejudice from the perspective of parents as first teachers.
- Embrace Race provides a list of 31 children’s books that support conversations about race, racism, and resistance, and you can find more here from the New York Times.
- The Brown Bookshelf is designed to push awareness of the myriad Black voices writing for young readers, with books with brown and black protagonists who deal, at times, with tough issues.
- Race Conscious shares 100 things you can say to your child to advance racial justice.
- Common Sense Media, a non-profit that rates movies, TV shows, books, apps, and other media for parents and schools, curated a race and racism resource guide that includes media for toddlers and preschoolers.
- Black Lives Matter At School’s 2020 Curriculum Resource Guide includes elementary school level posters with age-appropriate vocabulary, coloring, and activity books.
- American Academy of Pediatrics offers ways to help parents struggling with what to say about news events to children in “Talking to Children About Tragedies & Other News Events.”
- The Center for Racial Justice compiled a resource for talking about racism and radicalized violence with interviews and advice from experts.
- Children’s Alliance’s resource “Talking About Racism and Bias: Resources for Parents and Caregivers” includes dealing with hate speech and hate crimes.
- The National Association for the Education of Young Children shares a story of one kindergarten teacher’s work at addressing race and racism throughout a school year.
As parents — and particularly for white parents — it’s our job to stand up to injustice and raise a generation who will do what is right and just for all people.
[Also, one of our strongest tools in holding our leaders accountable and protecting the best interests of our community is VOTING. Talk to your kids about the power of voting, and lead by example by exercising your right to vote. Check your voter registration status HERE.]
Written by By Ronnie Citron-Fink, Editorial Director at Moms Clean Air Force
Recently on Twitter