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American Jewish Committee (AJC) is tackling several tough questions and topics in 2023. What should we answer next? Email us at toughquestions@ajc.org to let us know. Don't miss our tough questions on Israel.
In the decades following World War II, American Jews enjoyed unparalleled success and freedoms that their ancestors and brethren in other parts of the world were long denied. However, in recent years with a trend first starting in Western Europe, antisemitism has resurfaced in alarming fashion in the United States.

From deadly attacks like the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the 2019 Chabad Center shooting in Poway, California, to the 2022 hostage situation at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, and the normalization in mainstream popular culture punctuated by the spread of antisemitic rhetoric by rapper Kanye West, basketball star Kyrie Irving, and comedian Dave Chappelle, hatred of the Jews continues to multiply in the United States.

But what is antisemitism, why has it become so common now, and why has prejudice against Jews emerged so forcefully?

To understand why, here are answers to ten tough questions about Jew-hatred, including the origins and sources of antisemitism, what it looks like today, and what Israel has to do with it.

Antisemitism is the most ancient hatred, rooted in Christian religious teachings that go back millennia. Over that time antisemitism has morphed into variants that are both blatant and insidious, but equally harmful to Jews. The shape-shifting nature of antisemitism is part of what sets it apart. Antisemitism is also different from other forms of racism, which often vilify victims as inferior.

In addition to emphasizing how unworthy, unclean, and greedyJews can be, antisemitism emphasizes that Jews see themselves as superior and deny opportunities to others. It accomplishes this with conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the media, banks, and government, as well as with derogatory stereotypes such as myths about "Jewish power" or the "Jewish lobby." This type of antisemitism, assailing Jews for their perceived power, especially resonates in today's context of anti-racism, which aims to disrupt traditional power structures.

Both white supremacists and Black supremacists, such as followers of the Nation of Islam under Louis Farrakhan, see Jews as trying to supplant them as the superior race. White supremacists present the deadliest threat. Black supremacists, such the Black Hebrew Israelites, say they are the true Jews, the chosen people of God described in the Bible, and that "White" Jews are not the real Jews, but impostors. This ideology has come to the forefront in antisemitic statements made by rapper Kanye West, who said during an October 2022 with Fox News's Tucker Carlson that "When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are. This is who our people are."

Viewing Jews as oppressors is another common form of antisemitism. Anti-Zionists, for example, accuse Jews collectively of ethnic cleansing by not allowing Palestinians the right to return to Israel. They cast the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a racial conflict rather than a geopolitical or nationalist dispute. The platform of anti-racism, a purported intention to work against prejudice and bigotry, is often used by antisemites to conceal their efforts by denying self-determination and equal treatment to one minority (Jews) in order to lift up others.

The belief that the Jews, alone among the people of the world, do not have a right to self-determination - or that the Jewish people have no religious and historical connection to Israel - singles out Jews unlike any other form of discrimination.

Throughout history, antisemitism has presented itself in a number of ways, while constantly holding individual Jews responsible for the "misdeeds" of Jews in general. While there were pre-Christian Greco-Roman persecutions, anti-Jewish sentiment originally began through a Christian lens, including interpretations of Christian doctrine, and early Church fathers' teaching of contempt toward Jews. This included the charge that Jews killed Jesus, which is known as "deicide." The deicide charge holds all Jews responsible for that act.

In the Medieval era, this discrimination was used to scapegoat Jews for a plethora of misfortunes. Jews were blamed for the kidnapping and death of Christian children, known as the blood libel claim. They also were accused of spreading disease, a charge known as poisoning the well. As Jews began to assimilate in Europe and were allowed to take part in professions and public positions previously denied to them, conspiracies about Jewish power began to proliferate.

Since the creation of the State of Israel, antisemitism has come to target the modern Jewish collective: the Jewish state. No other country has faced such overwhelming odds against its very survival or experienced the same degree of never-ending demonization and vilification by other nations. Today's multiform antisemitism comes from all of these concepts.

The tropes and conspiracy theories of antisemitism have changed and evolved throughout history to reflect current events and contexts. As mentioned in question two, anti-Jewish sentiment began through a religious lens known as the "deicide" charge. In medieval times, Jews experienced the blood libelclaim, and the poisoning the wellcharge. Later, as Jews began to assimilate into European society, conspiracies about Jewish power began to spread, such as through the fabricated Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fraudulent document attributed to the Russian secret police in the early 20th century and still circulated today, that serves as a rationale for antisemitism.

As eugenics -a strict pseudo-scientific hierarchy of the human race based on the false belief that selective breeding can improve a population's genetic composition - became central to Adolf Hitler's Nazi propaganda of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, anti-Jewish sentiment evolved through a racial lens. Aryans, or descendants of the Nordic race, occupied the top of Hitler's hierarchy. Jews, who Hitler also blamed for Germany's loss in World War I, occupied the bottom. His final solution for Europe's Jewish problem was the slaughter of six million Jews during the Holocaust.

Another form of antisemitism that targets the Jewish state emerged with the creation of the State of Israel. The belief that the Jews, alone among the people of the world, do not have a right to self-determination - or that the Jewish people have no religious and historical connection to Israel - singles out and discriminates against Jews, and is fueled by the same motives that have existed for millennia.

All of these expressions of antisemitism are still found today: in societies with and without Jews, online and in textbooks across the Arab world, in both the fringes of society and, increasingly, in mainstream discourse. The shape-shifting nature of antisemitism is part of what sets it apart.

Both. Other places too. We need to unequivocally condemn all sources of antisemitism, which sometimes feed off each other, contributing to the current global rise.

One deadly threat comes from the far-right. This antisemitism comes from white supremacists who consider Jews to be the primary enemy trying to unseat the white race from the proverbial throne. In fact, antisemitism is the most enduring component of the white supremacist worldview.

An online manifesto posted by the shooter who murdered 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue shows that white supremacists view Jews as nonwhites. The shooter committed the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. But for a lock on the synagogue door, a similar scene could have played out in Halle, Germany when a far-right gunman tried to enter a Yom Kippur service in 2019.

Paradoxically, the far-left often views Jews as white supremacists. Amid far-left calls to tear down ingrained and unjust power structures, Jews are targeted by activists who employ antisemitic themes that Jews have too much power and privilege.

Among European intellectuals, antisemitism has emerged alongside anti-American sentiments, similar to the former Soviet Union where Jews were accused of supporting American imperialism. In fact, the Soviet Union led the effort in 1975 to link Zionism to racism, basing their accusations on the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion and arguing that Judaism's concept of "the chosen people" promoted racial superiority. This deliberate slur interpolated and distorted the real meaning of Judaism, which explains the Jewish people are 'chosen,' or set apart, for special and burdensome religious and social obligations.

Now across Europe, the powerful U.S. is seen in the same vein as the so-called powerful Jews.

A trend toward identity politics also has contributed to antisemitism on the left, as people adopt a "with us, or againstus" approach that leaves no room for disagreement on individual issues. As a result, those who support Zionism are increasingly turned away from progressive spaces advocating for social justice, even when the issue has nothing to do with Israel.

Far-left antisemitism is also expressed as opposition to Israel's right to exist or holding all Jews responsible for Israel's actions. Antisemitic violence and rhetoric has broken out during some pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel protests. Meanwhile, in the U.S. Congress, a growing group of far-left Democrats has accused Israel of apartheid. Specifically, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN.) has said "Israel has hypnotized the world" and accused politicians who support Israel of pushing for allegiance to a foreign country - an antisemitic trope called dual loyalty.

In Britain, an antisemitic scandal rocked the left-wing Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn - a prime example of how one man's contempt for Zionists helped unleash, or at the very least give fellow party members carte blanche to unleash a torrent of Jew-hatred.

Meanwhile, religious extremists, including those who espouse extremism in the name of Islam, also propagate antisemitism. In fact, every fatal attack against Jews in Europe in recent years, except for Halle, Germany, has been carried out by those who claim to act in the name of Islam. Religious extremism also fuels the ambitions of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas to wipe Israel off the map, making occasional far-left support of these groups quite alarming.

All these sources exist simultaneously.

Disproportionate focus on Jews - even if positive - may hint at underlying prejudice, if not nefarious intent.

Philosemitism is a special interest in, respect for, or admiration for Jewish people, Jewish history, orJewish stereotypes. And therein lies the problem. For example, a philosemite might prefer to hire Jewish lawyers or accountants because they believe no one manages money as well as a Jew. Journalist Yair Rosenberg sums it up this way: "At worst, given the right impetus, the coin of philo-Semitic antisemitism can easily be flipped, and all those formerly positive stereotypes can be weaponized against Jews."

Philosemitism is also considered problematic when it creates a "good Jew-bad Jew" dichotomy - such as favoring Orthodox Jews over non-Orthodox, or non-Zionist Jews over Zionist Jews, or Jewish Republicans over Jewish Democrats.

Christian Evangelical Zionism can also be a problematic form of philosemitism. While Christian Zionists strongly support the Jewish state, a small number are pre-millennial dispensationalists, meaning they only support bringing Jews to Israel because they believe it will bring about the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus. This treats Jews as a means to an end and also a target for conversion. It can even set the stage for scapegoating the Jews when the Rapture doesn't come as expected.

Viewing Jews as "white" is a recent phenomenon in framing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By falsely framing it as a racial conflict in which Israelis are purportedly labeled as white people, anti-Israeli activists draw false comparisons to racial inequality in the U.S. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a conflict between two nationalisms - Palestinian nationalism on the one hand and Jewish nationalism, or Zionism, on the other.

Jews are European Ashkenazi Jews, Black Jews from Ethiopia, brown Jews from India, Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews from North Africa and Arab countries, Persian Jews from Iran, and more. Israel is a homeland for all Jews. The word "Jew" comes from "Judea," the ancient name for Israel.

Casting Israel as a "white" oppressor distorts the reality of a multicultural country that guarantees civil rights for all its citizens, regardless of background or origin. It also distorts the diverse nature of the Jewish people, along with the history and danger of antisemitism. Truth is, Jews were not considered white through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and still aren't considered white by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Renowned Jewish historian and scholar Deborah Lipstadt is fond of saying that "the racist punches down, but the antisemite often punches up." One of the characteristics of antisemitism is that it is often connected to perceptions of power and privilege.
For more information on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism Definition, click here.
It is almost as though the more accepted Jews are in a society the more they stick out as "not belonging" so Jews are naturally sensitive to those pointing to wealth, power, etc.

In 2021, it's true that there are Jews who hold positions of power in government, lead major corporations, and are well-represented among students and faculty in academic institutions. However, Jews were subject to academic quotas and other forms of discrimination only two generations ago. It does not matter to white supremacists, whether Jews are poor or privileged, they are targeted for being Jewish.

In the U.S., the First Amendment protects speech that's racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and antisemitic. So, classifying speech as antisemitic does nothing to restrict it. But where such bigotry has consequences-e.g., in determining the motivation of hate crimes-it is important to know what antisemitism is. After all, the First Amendment does have limits. It does not protect incitement, defamation, fighting words, and threats to violence that are both imminent and likely. A tool to help understand all these forms of anti-Jewish hatred is important in determining the biased motivation of hate crimes that are punishable under the law.

It's also important for promoting civil discourse in public settings and on social media. In that way, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, developed in 2016, actually helps safeguard First Amendment guarantees of freedom of religion and speech. Explaining modern forms of antisemitism as IHRA's Working Definition does prevent a "chilling effect" for members of the Jewish community who otherwise might feel afraid to openly identify as Jewish. It also discourages progressive spaces from barring Jews from participating in progressive causes because of their affiliation with Israel. AJC's 2021 State of Antisemitism in America report found that 81% of American Jews and 85% of the general public said anti-Zionism - defined by the statement "Israel has no right to exist" - is antisemitic.

Absolutely not. Those inside and outside Israel who disagree with the nation's policies and actions have every right to speak up - and do. As the only democracy in the Middle East, a healthy and free discourse is encouraged. But it's important to specify that "Israeli policies" or "actions of Israel's army" are the target of criticism. Precise language distinguishes a legitimate critique from an effort to delegitimize Israel's fundamental right to exist.

Delegitimization, demonization, and double standards are the three Ds often used as a barometer to determine whether a critique crosses the line from legitimate criticism into an antisemitic charge.

When Israel and its leaders are demonized - made to seem completely evil - or when Israel is blamed for all the violence in the Middle East, that is antisemitic. Likewise, when Israel's policies and actions are called out as human rights abuses while horrific human rights abuses in other nations such as Iran and China go unchecked, that double standard can be another example of antisemitism.

Advocating for a two-state solution that includes a Palestinian nation-state, criticizing policies of the Israeli government, and speaking up in support of Palestinian rights is not anti-Zionist nor is it antisemitic. Opposition to all forms of nationalism or borders, including Jewish nationalism, is not antisemitic.

However, calling for an end to just the Jewish state crosses the line into antisemitism. The belief that the Jews, alone among the people of the world, do not have a right to self-determination - or that the Jewish people have no religious and historical connection to Israel - singles out and discriminates against Jews, which is the very definition of antisemitism.

When Jews around the world are verbally or physically harassed or Jewish institutions are vandalized in response to actions of the State of Israel, that is antisemitism.

When criticisms of Israel employ antisemitic tropes of Jewish power or greed, engage in Holocaust denial, or accuse Israelis of being the "new Nazis they cross the line into antisemitism.

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10 Tough Questions on Antisemitism Explained

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What are the origins and sources of antisemitism, what is the antisemitism definition, what does it look like today, and what does Israel have to do with it? Here are the answers to 10 tough questions about Jew-hatred and a look at "why people hate Jews."

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Transforming Shame to Guilt in the Pursuit of Racial Justice | Han Ren | TEDxKoenigLane

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Before finding an Asian American mental health practitioner, Agnes Morelos' experiences with therapy felt lacking.

She'd go to sessions and either water down her observations as a Filipina, Chinese and Spanish woman, or simply not address some of the more thorny aspects of her race and ethnicity ― like her lingering guilt over pursuing a job in writing and communications when her parents had dreams of her entering the medical or engineering field. Or how tired she was of swiping right on men on dating apps, only to have them say something in her DMs that suggested they had an Asian fetish.

Now that she's been working with a therapist who also identifies as Asian American, she feels like there's a mutual, unspoken understanding of her identity. She can share what she's processing at the moment without having to slow down and educate someone who's culturally unfamiliar with the territory.

"It's like I'm able to dive into a 400-level understanding of race and ethnicity and skip over the 100-level," Morelos, an assistant director of digital community engagement at the University of San Francisco, told HuffPost. "There's a level of psychological safety in my therapy work now that I've found incredibly valuable."

While there are certainly culturally competent white therapists out there, many may never bring up a difference in race or ethnicity due to their own discomfort or lack of awareness around it, said Ivy Kwong, a psychotherapist specializing in AAPI mental health and healing intergenerational trauma.

"I have spoken with many Asian American females whose white therapists never referenced or inquired about how they've been impacted by the anti-Asian hate incidents or the Atlanta spa shooting," she said. "As clients, they've felt extremely uncomfortable in sessions having to bring it up themselves or they've not brought it up at all because they felt their therapist couldn't offer them a space of comfort or knowledge."

It can be exhausting to do that kind of emotional labor in your own therapy, Kwong said.

"The cultural understanding helped tremendously. No need to explain nor be seen as weird or exotic."

Martin Gee, a Chinese American freelance illustrator in New York, sought out an Asian American therapist after dealing with some dismissiveness about his experiences from a white therapist.

"My first therapist and I weren't on the same page, and having to explain racism to her so that I could supposedly understand it better was an insulting waste of time," he said.

Gee's experiences aren't uncommon. Asian Americans are already the least likely racial group in the U.S. to seek mental health services, and when they do, they face cultural barriers like the ones Gee described. According to one study, AAPI clients have reported lower service satisfaction and less confidence in their provider, attributed to a lack of culturally responsive therapy.

Eventually, Gee "broke up" with his therapist and found another provider who was biracial ― Chinese and Jamaican.

It was an instant connection: He joked that the two of them could converse about everything from dim sum and different kinds of dumplings to more substantial things like racist dog-whistling in politics and systemic racism.

"Even that cultural understanding helped tremendously," he said. "No need to explain nor be seen as weird or exotic."

recep-bg via Getty Images

There's another reason it's valuable to find an Asian therapist, said Lia Huynh, a marriage and family therapist: Non-Asian American therapists may look at facets of Asian cultural values and dynamics ― living at home into adulthood, for instance ― and only see unhealthy patterns and dysfunction.

"It's quite common ― and even lauded ― when Asian adult children live at home until they get married, but someone who doesn't understand this might label the situation as 'enmeshed' ― a psychological term for being too close and in need of boundaries," she said.

"I'm not saying that wouldn't be the case, but it isn't always," Huynh said. "Sometimes it's a case of an adult child simply honoring their parents."

Ultimately, an Asian American therapist is far more likely to appreciate cultural nuances and understand them as psychological adaptations to social pressure, said Jenny T. Wang, a clinical psychologist and the author of the upcoming book "Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans."

"It's about understanding the lived experiences of other Asian Americans, but also appreciating how the historical, cultural and societal forces of colonialism, immigration, racism, intergenerational trauma, cultural values and survival adaptations impact the mental health of Asian Americans," Wang said.

How To Find An Asian American Therapist

In order for therapy to really work and have an impact on your life, you need to find the right fit. It's critical to take your time with this process ― no need to rush into sessions with the first therapist you find! Below, Asian American mental health experts share how to best execute your search.

Search databases that cater to AAPI mental health.

Luckily, there are plenty of online resources to help you connect with an Asian-identifying therapist these days. Kwong recommends the following directories:

Asian For Mental Health, a directory where you can search by state (and also find therapists who are licensed to practice in multiple states);

Asian Mental Health Collective, a therapist directory for those in the U.S. and Canada;

South Asian Therapists, the largest South Asian mental health therapist community. The directory has hundreds of South Asian therapists, including those of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Afghan and Nepali heritage;

Inclusive Therapists, a directory to find therapists who focus on the needs of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BI&POC) and the LGBTQ community;

Unmute, a startup by two AAPI women, originally founded to help match AAPI clients to AAPI therapists based on specialty and insurance.

You could also conduct a Google search or Psychology Today search for "Asian American therapist" in your state. Wang said you can also filter the search list based on the presenting issue (ie., anxiety, depression, marriage difficulties, etc.), cost requirements (in-network insurance, sliding-scale/reduced fees, pro bono), therapist attributes (ie., gender identity, ethnicity, years in practice, specialty trainings).

If financial limitations are a concern, Open Path Collective has a directory of clinicians who offer sessions between $30-$80 per session, which is much lower than a typical self-pay rate, Wang said. (Here are a few other suggestions for cutting costs, even just a little bit.)

If an AAPI therapist you'd like to work with is not covered by your insurance, ask if they have sliding scale rates available or if they are able to create a superbill for you after sessions. (A superbill is a receipt for a session with an out-of-network counselor that a patient can submit to their health insurance for a full or partial reimbursement.)

Even if the therapist you reach out to can't take you at the time, they might be able to recommend another AAPI therapist they know is available.

"I am in many AAPI therapist networks where we can request referral info in order to support clients in getting the culturally responsive care they need and deserve," Kwong said.

Consider teletherapy if you can't find a local Asian-identifying therapist.

SDI Productions via Getty Images

Don't rule out non-Asian American therapists with experience and cultural sensitivity.

In order for therapy to work, you need to feel safe with your therapist. That sense of safety can be a result of your shared cultural background, but it doesn't necessarily have to be.

Some Asian Americans might actually prefer a non-Asian therapist because they worry that they might be judged by someone from within their community, Wang said.

If you were born overseas or have very strong ties to your Asian culture, finding someone who is Asian becomes much more salient, according to Huynh.

If do plan to expand your search but still want someone who's culturally aware, Wang recommends asking the following questions during your 15-minute consultations:

Have you worked with Asian American clients in the past and how is it different from working with clients with other identities?

How do you consider intersectionality within your clinical practice?

What type of work have you engaged in to better equip you in working with Asian Americans? (For instance, have you pursued educational training on anti-racism, cultural humility and issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion?)

What work have you done to explore and interrogate your implicit biases in working with people of color?

A quality Wang said she looks for in any therapist is a sense of humility: Regardless of their ethnicity, are they approachable, open-minded, and genuinely curious about your perspectives and experiences?

"A therapist who prioritizes humility sees themselves as collaborators much more than as 'experts,'" she said. "They can withstand being told that they are wrong and are able to tolerate admitting they messed up."

What you need is a therapist with a deep understanding of how to apply cultural humility in therapy sessions.

"A culturally humble and reverent therapist will acknowledge the inherent power, privilege, and race dynamics within the therapy room," Wang said. "They will be able to curiously wonder which parts of your cultural heritage are life-giving and help you question parts that might be too costly to maintain."

Recognize what a "good fit" feels like for a client and therapist.

The bottom line is, you and any potential therapist are likely a good fit if you're able to share openly with them and feel supported, appreciated and understood when you do so.

One tell-tale sign that client and therapist are not a good fit? If you feel invalidated by their comments or you find yourself dreading going to therapy every week, said Cindy Shu, a marriage and family therapist in San Francisco, California.

Some examples include "feeling emotionally exhausted with having to explain their cultural experiences and or feeling defensive when a clinician gives feedback that is misaligned to the client's lived experience," Shu said. "If you feel misunderstood, bring it up with the therapist. There's a huge opportunity for reparation and growth with the therapeutic relationship."

The process of finding a therapist may feel time-consuming or a little scary, but ultimately, it's entirely worth the effort. And you should be especially proud that you're taking this step, given the longstanding resistance and stigma surrounding therapy in much of the Asian American community.

"For Asian Americans, it's worth analyzing some of the cultural values that may have been passed down through generations that can cause individuals to feel grief, stuck and alone," Shu said. "Doing the work now for ourselves means we can empower our future generations to live more fully in their authenticity."

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Before finding an Asian American mental health practitioner, Agnes Morelos' experiences with therapy felt lacking. She'd go to sessions and either water down her observations as a Filipina, Chinese and Spanish woman, or simply not address some of the more thorny aspects of her race and ethnicity ― like her lingering guilt over pursuing a job in writing and communications when her parents had dreams of her entering the medical or engineering field.

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Find alternatives to calling the Boston Police Department or 911.

Typically, people call the police because they are experiencing or perceive an emergency and need immediate assistance. In order to provide the most effective alternatives to calling the police or 911, unless otherwise indicated, the resources included here are limited to those that offer immediate assistance through emergency or crisis services.

These resources may be obligated to call police in the case of an immediate risk of harm to the caller or another, child abuse, or abuse of a vulnerable adult. Where we know or suspect that a resource may work in cooperation with law enforcement or involve them beyond what is required by law, we acknowledge that in the listing.

These resources are not intended to cover all situations, only to provide the services described. If you are in danger of immediate harm and feel safe doing so, call 911.

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Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Bridge is Boston's foremost agency providing life-changing services for homeless, runaway and at-risk youth. Serving youth ages 14-24. Oversees the Boston Safe Place Network.

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Text the word "safe" and your current location (address, city, state) to 4HELP (44357) to connect with a Safe Place counselor (youth under 18, 24/7)

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A survivor-led, social justice organization that works to end partner abuse in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, SM, polyamorous, and queer communities. The Network/La Red's 24-hour hotline provides confidential emotional support, information, referrals, safety planning, and crisis intervention for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and/or transgender (LGBQ/T) folks, as well as folks in SM/kink and polyamorous communities who are being abused or have been abused by a partner. We also offer information and support to friends, family, or co-workers on the issue of domestic violence in LGBQ/T communities.

(617) 423-7233

Toll Free: 1 (800) 832-1901

http://tnlr.org/en/

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Samaritans Statewide Helpline

24/7 free, confidential mental health hotline. Volunteer counselors available to speak with callers and address concerns. Available in 240 languages.

1 (877) 870-4673

https://samaritanshope.org/our-services/24-7-helpline/

Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault

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National Deaf Hotline: 1 (855) 812-1001

SafeLink MA

24/7 Statewide Crisis Hotline hosted through Casa Myrna, Boston's largest provider of shelter and supportive services to survivors of domestic violence, providing safety, resources, advocacy and information since 1977. All resources are free.

1 (877) 785-2020

TTY: 1 (877) 521-2601

https://casamyrna.org/

The Network/LaRed
A survivor-led, social justice organization that works to end partner abuse in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, SM, polyamorous, and queer communities. The Network/La Red's 24-hour hotline provides confidential emotional support, information, referrals, safety planning, and crisis intervention for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and/or transgender (LGBQ/T) folks, as well as folks in SM/kink and polyamorous communities who are being abused or have been abused by a partner. We also offer information and support to friends, family, or co-workers on the issue of domestic violence in LGBQ/T communities.

Youth

Please note, people answering these calls may be mandatory reporters, and required to make a report to CPS or law enforcement in certain situations. Learn about local mandatory reporter laws here.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Bridge is Boston's foremost agency providing life-changing services for homeless, runaway and at-risk youth. Serving youth ages 14-24. Oversees the Boston Safe Place Network.

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Find alternatives to calling the Boston Police Department or 911. Typically, people call the police because they are experiencing or perceive an emergency and need immediate assistance. In order to provide the most effective alternatives to calling the police or 911, unless otherwise indicated, the resources included here are limited to those that offer immediate assistance through emergency or crisis services.

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A Kids Book About Racism by Jelani Memory

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Far-right studies has been historically overrepresented by white scholars and those who don't acquaint themselves with Black feminist thought scholarship. The intellectual productivity of Black women scholars must be integrated when analysing the impact of right-wing misogyny and far-right ideologies on women of color, and specifically Black women. Misogynoir, a term created by Moya Bailey a Black feminist scholar and activist, explains the deep-rooted hate posed by sex and race that Black women experience. In her book, Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women's Digital Resistance, Bailey walks the reader through the creation of the term misogynoir. She asked herself "how do you describe the ways that Black women are uniquely denigrated because of their gender and race?" Misogynoir is paramount to the discussion of digital media and violent extremism because it describes anti-Black misogyny in visual culture that create ideas, caricatures, and stereotypes about Black women. Harmful ideas about Black women that circulate our technology are co-constructed by racism and sexism and have inimical consequences for Black women.

Misogynoir is a term that is relatively new to many. Bailey's seminal work allows Black women to find ways to explicitly name the prejudice towards them that is permeated throughout United States visual culture. Misogynoir can be perpetuated by everyone because the framework centers Black women who are the receivers of this hate. It's also vital to acknowledge that violent extremism is a Black women's issue as well, and what I mean by this is that when we consider intersectionality and other frameworks cultivated by Black women scholars, Black women are sidelined in every issue, and it's time for the field of far-right studies to make more space to discuss the role of misogynoir in digital media that influences violent extremism and the white consumption of misogynoir.

Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was murdered in her own home in Louisville, Kentucky by white police officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove is an example of the fatal effects of misogynoir. Her case is at a halt with no indication of progress, compared to the murder of George Floyd, whose murderer was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The erasure of Black women's stories but the memefication of our pain and trauma falls under misogynoir. Digital media has served as a home for the public's consumption of anti-Black misogyny as seen in memes, Twitter harassment, and YouTube videos from the Black manosphere; the Black manopshere is an online community that seeks to encourage Black men, but does so by disparaging Black women. To the Black manosphere and other groups, Breonna Taylor's case wasn't important, but using her face and names was profitable. An illustration of Taylor appeared on Vanity Fair, merchandise with "arrest the cops who murdered Breonna Taylor, " and other statements concerning the case appear to be great in theory. Not only are these items not producing transformative change to a system that subordinates Black women, but they invite violence.

As I reflect on the harrowing story of Breonna Taylor, I also consider the abysmal attacks on her identity from far-right groups and how these attacks on social media are archived and made for others to join in. For example, far-right groups and individuals created a video spreading misinformation about Taylor and incited more right wing commentators to justify her murder. Far-right individuals fabricated that the police had a no-knock warrant to arrest Taylor. Breonna Taylor was not an agitator but a victim of police violence. Nevertheless, the far-right recirculated false claims about what transpired the night of 13 March 2020. Even when facts are presented and there are multiple sources that will confirm an event, far-right individuals and groups will intentionally ignore them in efforts to justify violence towards people of colour. Black women like Breonna Taylor have been used as a trend on social media and commodified. Her story and her case deserve to be highlighted but we cannot ignore the ways in which users on social media have used her death for their own gain, as well as how the far-right is enraged by large amounts of content being shared regarding her story. Black women are at crossroads; amplifying our stories through digital media being of importance and someone who believes in genocide behind a computer fabricating the violence that clearly has happened. Taylor's treatment from far-right groups goes beyond hate speech. Law enforcement in the United States to many has served as a proxy to far-right groups. The wealth of support police officers received from the far-right after the killing of Breonna Taylor is what fuels violent extremism towards Black women as seen in her mural being vandalised. Misogynoir is again enriched in our society.
Misogynoir and its Connections to Far Right Violence
Misogynoir in digital media has life threatening repercussions for Black women and girls especially Black queer women and girls. One consequence is violent extremism. Black women are discredited, mocked, and disrespected on social media platforms and Black feminists have mentioned this several times before. Digital media is a means of educating audiences and misogynoir is prevalent in digital media. As a result, white people but specifically white youth are consuming misogynoir. Parents play an integral role in socialising their children and media literacy that incorporates the influence of social media algorithms for both parents and children is necessary ( Burnham et al., in preparation; Bandura, 2001). Social media accounts that use memes to express their conservatives' views and harmful ideologies are increasing ( DeCook, 2018). Many of these memes perpetuate misogynoir. Misogynoir is deeply connected to violent extremism and the virulent development of violence towards Black women and girls, and the consumption of misogynoir has deleterious effects on the well-being of Black women and girls. Although details are still emerging, the field of far-right studies needs to begin to evaluate instances of violent attacks on Black women and girls and create the connection between misogynoir, technology, and violence.

To provide an example, on 18 April 2021, around 7:45 am, a jogger in Hopkinton, Massachusetts found 16-year-old resident Mikayla Miller hanging from a tree. This area was a predominately white suburb. Miller was a Black queer girl who had been assaulted by four white teens 24 hours before she was found dead the next day. Miller's death garnered an outpouring of attention and sympathy from activists and organisers in Boston and cities adjacent. On 18 May, activists and members of Miller's family were against the medical examiner report, that ruled Miller's death a suicide. Many, including elected officials like Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, inquired about opening an independent investigation. Details on the case are still emerging as the investigation is underway. Black activists in Boston, believe that Miller's death is not a suicide but a hate crime because of the events leading up to her death. I won't make my assumptions about the cause of death of Mikayla Miller at this moment, although that is important. However, I do want to make space to explore the intersections of misogynoir, technology, and violent extremism.

There isn't any information of the white youth who assaulted Miller, but media and a lack of media literacy for white youth can act as enablers of misogynoir that lead to violence and that is how we can make sense of events like these. Arbeit and colleagues (2020) capture a theoretical integration of research from various disciplines to create a framework for youth practitioners to counter fascist recruitment of white male youth. Far-right recruitment of White male youth can occur online with memes, conspiracy videos, and other digital forms. Recruitment pathways such as these can lead youth into endangering others. Far-right groups may distance themselves from physical violence but still place youth in positions to abide by their agenda and use violence to achieve their goals (Arbeit et al., 2020). The connection between white youth's susceptibility, specifically white male youth for fascists organising and Mikayla Miller, isn't a stretch. Just 24 hours before her death, she was assaulted by white teens. Although they may not have a formal association with an organisation, white youth are still susceptible to these messages, and when there is a potential threat, we must cease it before it gets lethal. However, misogynoir is so normalised and widely accepted that it may not even be seen as a threat by counter-terrorism experts who are unfamiliar with the term and all its social, political, and moral contours.
What Black Feminist Thought Can Teach Far Right Studies?
Black feminist frameworks such as intersectionality provide scholars with a rich understanding of interlocking systems of oppression based on one's identity ( Crenshaw, 1991). Kimberlé Crenshaw's work on intersectionality emerged from legal studies but has now been used in many disciplines to consider the violence towards women of colour and our marginalisation. Violent extremism occurs because we have people who actively believe that they should be the default and everything else that is not of the default needs to be gone and will eradicate people through genocide and others forms of violence to obtain their vision of what society is. Understanding the construction of violent extremism and far-right ideologies, we must ask ourselves who is at the margins? The goal of Black feminist scholarship that was introduced by Patricia Collins, is to explore the experiences of Black women in multiple mediums in order to uplift and promote the intellectual efforts of Black women and generate spaces that feel safe for us. Black feminist thought encourages us to be advocates of social change. The goal is to dismantle white supremacy, white nationalism, and right-wing misogyny. The analytical framework of misogynoir builds on intersectionality theory, and it's crucial to understanding the far-right because violence towards Black women has always been extreme since slavery from white supremacists. Furthermore, the traits that make up who Black women and other women of colour are, is what the far-right opposes. Simply put, anti-Blackness and male supremacy are descended from larger systems of oppression: white supremacy and misogyny, respectively.

As such, in many instances, far-right groups have attacked Black women online and more scholars in the field need to create space to discuss it and its implications. A popular example of this connection of far-right ideologies and misogynoir is right-wing commentators sharing their heinous views on Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B's song . Ben Shapiro, a popular far-right figure and a few Republican politicians tweeted their disdain for the song's message and explained why the song goes against American values and is detrimental to young people. Taking a deep dive into their explanations, it is rooted in misogynoir. The thought of Black women talking freely about their sexual experiences considering decades of their subjugation, it bothers right-wing misogynists. Shapiro's level of popularity invites other male supremacists to digitally attack Black women.

Far-right scholars can adopt these frameworks in their methodology and in their public writing. When talking about public terrorism and other forms of violence, challenging your research question to consider the impact of not only harmful ideas but the impact violence has on others allows for a more constructive conversation. With Black feminist frameworks and methods, we can illustrate the effect these forms of domination have on the safety of Black women and begin to make social change. Digital misogynoir has fueled violence and terrorism towards Black women and using scholars who have explored racism, sexism, classism not in isolation but in conjunction, allows us to break down the construction of the far-right that is built from the illogical premise that anything other than a white-ethno state is harming society.

Using Black feminist scholarship and far-right studies not only allows me to understand the connection between misogynoir and far-right ideologies but it offers me a chance to encourage fields to explicitly use this term and dismantle it. My previous work highlights transforming the lives of Black adolescents, and this goal of mine is inspired by a brief Twitter exchange between Dr. Crystal Fleming and I. She mentioned the need for right-wing studies to center the experiences of Black women and girls in her keynote at the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism in 2020, and I was curious to know more about her thoughts. Scholars in far-right studies must start asking questions about how to centre Black women and girls.
Alexandria C. Onuoha is a PhD student in Applied Developmental Psychology at Suffolk University in Boston She is a mentee at the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism, and a community organiser. Her primary research focus investigates the effects of far-right ideologies online and in-person on the development of Black adolescents.

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Digital Misogynoir and White Supremacy: What Black Feminist Theory Can Teach Us About Far Right Extremism - GNET

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Far-right studies has been historically overrepresented by white scholars and those who don't acquaint themselves with Black feminist thought scholarship. The intellectual productivity of Black women scholars must be integrated when analysing the impact of right-wing misogyny and far-right ideologies on women of color, and specifically Black women.

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The day that Covid-19 first hit a nursing home in Washington D.C., the place she has called her home for 11 years, Maia Wise, LICSW, noticed her anxiety increased. She was working as a medical social worker at The George Washington University Hospital and had originally planned to leave D.C. and do travel social work in September 2020. But, when that first case hit, and the patient on the news was living at a nursing home she had sent patients to, she knew things were going to change.

She thought, "People are dying and I could be next. I could get sick and come home and bring that to my roommates."

But, while she was scared of dying of a disease disproportionately affecting people that looked like her, at the same time, not more than a half mile away, people were protesting police brutality and saying the name of a Black woman, Breonna Taylor, who Maia saw many parts of herself in.

Maia Wise holding a coffee cup from her private practice, Wise Therapeutic Solutions LLC.
Maia Wise

She explains, "It's like, I can't find solace at work, literally inside the workplace, because of Covid-19, but when I stepped out...people are protesting for Black lives and everyday it's like the reality of being a Black woman in America slapping me in the face."

Her hospital's political stance, and hearing people she worked with saying the protest was stupid or didn't matter, was her last straw. She left her job to go work for the Department of Behavioral Health and to open a private practice, Wise Therapeutic Solutions LLC. Even still, she feels like this year and half, she is constantly in "survival mode."

Across town, Ryan Robinson, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist in private practice, had taken to isolating doing telepsych at the beginning of the pandemic. It was lonely, especially with his family in California, and around the murder of George Floyd, he found himself struggling with how best to show up for his community as a Black man. There was a moment, he says, after about 2 months of being inside by himself that he made the decision that it was worth the risk to go outside and protest. It was the first time he had interacted with people and that choice satisfied his personal needs. Professionally, though, he thought there was more he could do to help.

He made the decision to see more patients in his private practice than ever before, adding about 10 more patient slots. Work also became a way for him to cope. He explains, "I don't think that it is the healthiest thing, but my purpose suddenly became more so being a clinician, and so adding more spots, distracted away from maybe my own pain, sadness, and hurt with what was happening and continues to happen with these racial traumas." He adds that sitting with someone else's feelings and helping them through it, is different than if he was processing his own feelings about the world alone. Even though when he is with patients he does not talk about himself or his own experiences, he says it helps him process anyway. He explains, "I think even just being able to sit in the pain, helping someone understand their pain, also in a sense, helps me. I guess at the end of the day I do not feel alone in it. And, if I'm not working, I am alone in that pain."

His pain is only compounded with the recent rise in hate crimes in the Asian American community as Robinson identifies as both Black and Chinese American. This past year living and working as a Black male therapist is best summarized in one word: exhausting.

A Call To Action, A Recipe For Burnout

Wise and Robinson's experiences represent just two stories of many from Black therapists across the country who have helped bear the emotional weight of the pandemic, often out of the spotlight. Sure, HBO's new revival of the show "In Treatment" has Uzo Aduba as the therapist, which helps stimulate conversation, but the real life stories of Black therapists have largely gone underappreciated. Jessica Gaddy Brown, LICSW, CEO of Nia Noire Therapy+Wellness, explains, "When [the] press talks about "frontline heroes," mental health professionals are often excluded from the narrative, though we are the glue helping doctors, firefighters, emergency service workers, and society, in general, maintain their emotional well-being to enable them to show up in their respective careers or lifestyles." Therapists are frontline workers, too, and, like other frontline workers, helping others often comes at a cost. Many therapists, especially Black therapists, experience vicarious trauma and others, 41% according to an American Psychological Association 2020 report, endorse being burned out themselves.

In some this has manifested physically. April, a psychologist working in a Veteran's hospital/medical center, notes that her voice has gone out before the end of the day of work sometimes. Brown explains that she has experienced eye strain, body tension, and headaches, often from overscheduling herself. In others, burnout looks more emotional. Riana Elyse Anderson, Ph.D, LCP, Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, illustrates, "This morning I just didn't have it. I laid in bed and I just didn't have it. I couldn't respond to things. I wasn't in a space where I was particularly happy to be a provider to be in the United States and it was a very difficult morning and that has not been the first of these types of mornings...Burnout and frustration and being a member of the community and also trying to serve the community have just been unrelenting."

One reason for their burnout is the rising mental health needs of the Black community. Studies suggest that Black adults are more likely to report symptoms of depression and anxiety over the pandemic, and, while in 2020 the suicide rates dropped overall in this country, initial data from some states show a rise for Black Americans compared to previous years. Additionally, images of police brutality in the media can have a significant mental health impact. Sonya Davie, LMHC, a therapist and life coach in New York City, explains, "When anything happens in the news for a Black person, I have clients that come in that say it affects them, whereas you know another population it never comes up in conversation at all. But, if there is a recent shooting [,for example,]...my Black clients, they want to talk about or they have to talk about it, because it is vicarious trauma for them."

When Black patients finally do take the step to reach out for help, often they prefer to talk with a Black therapist(for places to look, here is a video Brown made). Karimah Ware, Psy.D, who has had a private practice called DWW Psychological Services, LLC for over 13 years explains, "Due to the civil and political unrest that this country has endured over this past year and the impact that Covid-19 has had on communities of color...individuals of color are reaching out to doctors and mental health professionals who look like them. They feel safe with professionals who look like them." This is difficult, however, as only 4% of psychologists and only 2% of psychiatrists are Black.

Still, the existing Black therapists try to do more to make up the difference. They will push their limits and add more patients and hours, even at their own expense. Brown started a new private practice when the pandemic began and within 2 weeks, it was full and she had a waitlist. She has since stretched her scheduling boundaries to 25-30 patients a week, often seeing 5-6 people back to back without any breaks. Ware reports that she is at 150% capacity, having taken on new patients, increased some patients to twice a week, and agreed to take back some former patients. She also notices her caseload is more acute than before; She has done more suicide risk assessments since the pandemic compared to this time last year and has also dealt with the need for more support for domestic violence than she has in her entire career. In other words, there are more patients, and sicker patients, and not enough people to serve them.

While these caseloads can cause burnout due to their severity and sheer volume, many Black therapists want to still be doing more. Some even expressed guilt at not being able to see everyone who needed help. Robinson asserts, "That's been hard for me in them reaching out, recognizing their desire, understandably so, to find a therapist who has shared experience, and it's less so about knowing the shared experience but just what it's like to be a Black man or a Black individual in the world, and how that creates a sense of safety. I think that's been something that has been difficult for me, recognizing that I didn't have spots." To help, therapists will try to refer that person to their Black therapist friends, yet, now, those friends also do not have room, and the cycle continues, wait lists grow, and so does their guilt. Davie adds, "That does bother me, that there's just no way I can see all of those people and be of any good to anyone and myself. That would definitely burn me out and so I know where my limits have to be. But, at the same time, you don't like when you have to turn people away."

And, it is not just patient care this year that has contributed to Black therapist burnout. Alfiee Breland-Noble, Ph.D, a psychologist and founder of the mental health nonprofit The AAKOMA Project, says people have been asking her to give more talks and to support and mentor more students that have no other mentors of color at their academic institutions. She feels all of that compounds and becomes too much. April adds that as a younger, newer, staff member, she feels pushed to take on extra tasks and as one of the few Black psychologists, she is asked to help with diversity issues in the workplace. She explains, "I am often contacted to...help chime in on diversity issues (e.g. former executive order banning diversity trainings, addressing racial tensions amid police murders across the country). Part of me wants to help, but I have largely been exploited at times or taken advantage of for being Black and being perceived as accommodating...In the last year, all the shootings, Covid-19 deaths, and the political climate have resulted in being present for awkward conversations in team meetings, being asked to help with diversity initiatives or speak as an authority on racial issues with the assumption that I want to/am able to do so."

Even if extra patient care and work in racial justice is the work they want to be doing and are most passionate about, there is so much work to do that it is still easy to burn out. That is what happened to Dr. Anderson. She explains that her work and training in a lot of ways built her up and prepared her to engage for "such a time as this," but that led to her getting rid of her boundaries completely as a call to action. She might, for example, only do one talk a month typically, and this past year that number has grown substantially - with 4 or 5 a day during the height of the calls for experts in racism. She adds, "I was just taking all of those parameters and boundaries down and now, I'm absolutely burnt out. One year later, I remain exhausted and am just in a space where I now need rest." Ware adds that her clinical schedule and decision to work long days (7 am to 8 pm sometimes), was also in direct response and purposeful for this time. She explains, "I do not regret rising to the occasion of supporting people in need. However, I have the responsibility that if I make a decision to do that, then I must commit to my own care so that I can best care for others. Finding space to care for me, my patients, and my loved ones is a difficult intersection, particularly during this time."

Coping With Burnout: From Kombucha To Therapy

Self-care is critical when you are giving so much to so many. Davie emphasizes, "I love my work. I love love love love what I do. But I have to do it from a place where I am in a good headspace. I can't lose myself in the process of being a therapist...Then I'm no good to anybody." Of course she is right, but not every therapist is as good at doing this organically. Some had to burn out first to realize that they needed to start coping at all.

The burnout reducing skills described in interviews varied widely among the therapists, as they each incorporated many of the skills that they teach patients, different forms of exercise, and hobbies to get by day-to-day and show up for their patients. For example, Wise turned to learning to make kombucha and to yoga, and Breland-Noble benefited greatly from being outside and doing daily meditation, mantras, and rituals (her other coping tips are discussed here).

Additionally, a common source of support for many was having a therapist. Ware perhaps put it the most strongly by saying, "I actually do not feel that [having a therapist] is an important coping mechanism for therapists-it should be a way of life if you're committed to doing this work, and doing it well. It's like choosing to be a pastor of a church and not praying, or like being a nutritionist and eating junk food all the time. There are certain professions in which your way of life has to mirror what you ask of others."

Many therapists also expressed finding support with each other, either formally or informally. Robinson has a group consultation with about 10 other therapists of color and meets every month. They talk about both clinical work and how they are really doing. He thinks he probably would not have done something like this before Covid-19, but it has been critical to his wellbeing during it. The group is drastically different from his training experiences, which were predominantly White. He explains that it further highlights the amount of emotional energy spent navigating White spaces and how relieving it can be to experience a training environment with others who understand. He says, "Nobody really understands that unique experience, more specifically than another therapist of color."

Maia Wise takes a fun photo after doing yoga on the Mall in Washington D.C. for self care.
Maia Wise

How To Really Support Your Black Therapist Friend

Another way to practice self-care is boundaries, but sometimes, it can be hard for therapists to ask for what they need, especially when they are burnt out. In those moments, loved ones can step up and be the ones providing the support. They can start by not adding to their burn out and instead doing the following:

Check On the Black Therapists In Your Life: As therapists spend so much time caring for others, often no one is caring for them. It can be extremely helpful to actually make an effort to check on people who work in mental health or mental health advocacy. Breland-Noble says this has helped her over the past year, including one time when a friend sent dinner to her house unexpectedly for her family. It can also be helpful to invite them to social activities, which, she says, "Give[s] them a boost and take[s] their mind off of what clearly is weighing on them right now."

Do Not Use Them For Free Therapy: Wise points out that she loves talking to her friends, but it can be hard when your friends use you as their therapist and place to vent. She says, "I have to draw boundaries and ask people, 'Please, ask me how I'm doing before you just call me and vent to me'... Just because I'm free doesn't mean I'm available."

Don't Just Talk About The News: If your friends do not want to hear about policy brutality and racial trauma, it is important to help them be protected outside of the office. Breland-Noble suggests "Ask for permission before you dive into these conversations...Just say 'look, that [insert event] is really weighing on me. Yeah, you feel like talking about that?' Like give me space and permission to tell you I don't want to have that conversation."

Educate Yourself:One issue that was brought up by a few Black therapists was that their mental health peers need to do more to take an antiracist position to alleviate their burden and to create a safe environment for them to work together to change the mental health system. Robinson explained, "Leadership at these institutions need to commit to educating themselves, diversifying training staff, and obtaining the skills to facilitate difficult conversations with White clinicians around topics related to race, power, and privilege within the mental health community. It is not the therapist/trainee of color's job to educate others." Breland-Noble agrees and says that the story should never be to "go to your Black friend and [say] I just want you to teach me." Instead people should pull together in groups and figure out what they can be doing to lessen the burden on those who do the work everyday. In doing so, and spending time truly learning to be competent in handling issues of race, Anderson adds, it will help patients, too. This will all only further alleviate the burden on Black therapists.

Finally, remember that therapists are human beings, too. They laugh, they cry, and they lose loved ones and have reactions to it, just like Wise did when her uncle died of Covid-19. Her patient may have been shocked that Wise "experiences stuff," but she does and she needs time to process it. She adds, "People think that we're like walking unicorns, we know absolutely everything, and we can handle everything that life throws at us. But, like we need downtime, we need time to relax and to restore, to be able to give to other people."

This is something therapists need to remind themselves of, too. As Brown emphasizes, "Before serving as a therapist, we are human first. We are Black humans."

... Read More

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We Need To Talk About Black Therapist Burnout

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When Covid-19 hit her hometown of Washington D.C., Maia Wise, LICSW, knew things were going to be different. But, while she feared exposure at work, at the same time, people were protesting for Black Lives outside the hospital. Her reality as a Black woman therapist had become exhausting.

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Our Mission

The BIPOC Project aims to build authentic and lasting solidarity among Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), in order to undo Native invisibility, anti-Blackness, dismantle white supremacy and advance racial justice.

We use the term BIPOC to highlight the unique relationship to whiteness that Indigenous and Black (African Americans) people have, which shapes the experiences of and relationship to white supremacy for all people of color within a U.S. context. We unapologetically focus on and center relationships among BIPOC folks.

Our Thinking

This nation is firmly entrenched in maintaining white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism. This reality has been resisted in multiple ways, including organizing led by and among various communities of color for survival. However, many efforts still focus only on combating white supremacy, with limited attention to the way communities of color adopt and reinforce these harms amongst ourselves and against other marginalized groups in a "race towards the bottom" for naming our pain. As a result, many multiracial BIPOC communities continue to be challenged to develop authentic and accountable inter-group relationships despite a shared struggle under white supremacy. These challenges often undermine anti-racist organizing among people of color because each community is differently shaped and situated depending on intersectional issues and identities.

BIPOC Project Solidarity Principles

Decolonize Stories - Seek, learn, share and affirm the distinct histories of BIPOC communities; and unlearn dominant narratives

Develop a Power Analysis - Consider how each BIPOC community is differently situated in the racial hierarchy and differently affected by issues

Uplift Native and Black Humanity - Honor the legacies of Native and Black resistance to colonization and white supremacy; and actively examine how disparities and injustices uniquely affect Native and Black communities

Organize Your People - 'Call in' your communities to deeper understanding and empathy for all BIPOC communities with love and compassion

Build Intergroup Connections and Relationships - Build just relationships; and invest in one another's liberation

Commit to Personal and Collective Healing - Practice both individual and community care; acknowledge ruptures and invite connection; and center healing and transformative justice

People of color have always understood the need for our own spaces without white people present, for our own safety and healing. The BIPOC Project expands on this fundamental understanding and seeks to directly address the gaps in building authentic and sustainable solidarity:

We address how three pillars of racism - Native invisibility, anti-Blackness and white supremacy - are internalized and show up in mutually reinforcing, distinct, and specific ways within BIPOC spaces and impede our efforts to collaborate across difference;

We disrupt calls for "unity" by making explicit dynamics of power across intersectional identities within a racial hierarchy underpinned by Native invisibility, anti-Blackness and white supremacy, and center BIPOC most at the margins;

Merle is a Black, queer, cis woman with extensive management and practice experience in youth work, including a focus on challenging interpersonal and structural racism in youth programs; in building and organizing cross-sector networks focused on gender and racial justice; and in translating research in innovative and culturally competent practice in complex environments.

Fiona is an Asian, immigrant, queer, cis woman with extensive experience facilitating change and transformation at the intersection of personal development, group dynamics, organizational change, and social justice, including partnering organizations and coalitions to hone and embody a racial equity lens and practice.

Signature half-day and full-day workshops:

For 'Colored Folks' Who Consider Our Mutual Liberation Enough - This experiential workshop uses historical and contemporary information, powerful questions and our Solidarity Framework to promote shared learning, intra- and inter-group connection, and community building.

Building Black Power: Dismantling Anti-Blackness in Our Institutions and Movements - This experiential workshop tackles the root causes of anti-Black racism and its cultural influences within our institutions, movements and communities, and offers a framework for unlearning anti-Blackness and developing a pro-Black stance within anti-racist practice among BIPOC folks.

Queering BIPOC Solidarity - This experiential workshop addresses the intersection of racism and hetero-patriarchy in BIPOC communities as it impacts femme-identified, trans, and non-binary folks of color, and offers an intersectional framework for understanding and addressing power, privilege and oppression.

Customized support and trainings through our BIPOC Institute that support successful BIPOC organizing, and cultivate BIPOC leadership, networks, community, and infrastructure that grows from one convening to the next.

Curriculum design, tools, and resources based on a power-building framework that evangelizes about the importance of lifting up differences as valuable organizing truths, and addresses the factors that hinder and facilitate mobilization among various BIPOC groups within and across their communities.

Our resources, custom support, and workshops are especially suited to:

BIPOC leaders seeking to leverage their own identities as well as resources, tools and networks to advance anti-racist change;

Organizations looking to establish and run effective BIPOC affinity groups and caucuses as part of larger organizational initiatives to create multicultural anti-racist organizations;

Movements looking to mobilize diverse BIPOC groups around various issues and platforms; and

Groups seeking to integrate an intersectional analysis within BIPOC racial justice organizing.

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The BIPOC Project aims to build authentic and lasting solidarity among Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), in order to undo Native invisibility, anti-Blackness, dismantle white supremacy and advance racial justice.

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A documentary about a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy's experience in school, In My Blood It Runs, has reignited a debate about Australia's failure to give indigenous children a good education and a fair start in life.

"Listen carefully," the teacher tells the class. "This one isn't a story, this is information, or non-fiction - it's fact."

She's holding up The Australia Book, a picture book from 1952, and reads: "In Botany Bay, Cook landed for the first time in a new country. Then he sailed up the coast, mapping as he went... On an island in Cape York he raised the English flag. And he claimed for the English country the whole of this new land."

Dujuan Hoosan's hand shoots up, but he doesn't get the chance to speak.

Afterwards, the children have to find a list of words in the text and mark them with a highlighter. Dujuan, a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy, struggles a bit with the vocabulary, but he finds it even harder to recognise the story, because the history he has been taught by his elders is very different.

"That [lesson] was for white people, not for Aboriginals," he reflects. "This man came on the ship and he was the first white man on Australia. The Aboriginal people told them to go and find another land, because this was their land. But people didn't listen."

Film-maker Maya Newell filmed the scene for her documentary, In My Blood It Runs - in which she followed Dujuan at school for a year - and could feel his frustration.

"You imagine what it feels like to be essentially erased from history," she says.

Maya and Dujuan first met "out bush" when Maya was filming a story-telling session in one of the red-earth deserts of central Australia. Sitting around a campfire at night, a rapt group of Aboriginal children listened as aunts and grandmothers told stories in the Arrernte language about how the world began and about their connection to the land.

Dujuan was an eager learner. He had already got to know quite a few plants with medicinal properties, and told Maya about his healing gift: when his family had aches and pains it was his job to lay hands on them, he said, using powers that had passed to him after his great-grandad died.

Maya was struck by the unusually confident and articulate 10-year-old. When Dujuan said she should make a film about him, she asked his family, and they agreed. They wanted to shine a light on the difficulties Aboriginal families face in Australian schools, and they trusted Maya, who had been working with their community for more than a decade, making educational films and archiving songlines (an ancient way of passing on laws and knowledge).

Maya began to spend two or three days a week with Dujuan's family - his mother, grandmother and two brothers - recording day-to-day life in the Hidden Valley Aboriginal Town Camp, on the outskirts of Alice Springs. Some days there was no milk, so the boys ate breakfast at school. Some nights there was no electricity, so they played I-spy under the stars.

About 20% of the town's 30,000 residents are Aboriginal, and most of them live in heavily-policed, run-down camps that sprang up in the 1960s, when many Aboriginal people were forced off their land.

"You grew up around drunks, smoking - then you start learning from that," says Dujuan's mum, Megan. She was expelled from school at 14, so her parents sent her to stay with aunties in the safety of the countryside in Borroloola, 1,260km (780 miles) north. That's where she met Dujuan's dad, James, who came back with her to Alice Springs with their first child, but left when they broke up, a few years after Dujuan was born.

"Being a teenage parent is hard, and being an Aboriginal mum is exhausting," Megan says. "Every day you hear that you are not good enough - in the newspapers, on TV, on social media."

She worries about her children getting into trouble, like she did, particularly "smart and cheeky" Dujuan. And as filming progresses, her fears are realised.

One day a teacher reads the class a picture book of the Dreamtime, the Aboriginal story of how the world began. It's an effort to teach Aboriginal culture, but it's not a great success. The teacher seems puzzled. "So they're actually saying there's a spirit?" she asks.

Dujuan reacts with emotion: "The spirit is real, man!"

When his report card arrives he gets very upset. He has the lowest grade - E - for every subject. He thinks there must be something wrong with him.

Soon afterwards, he gets angry and smashes a window; he is sent home and risks being suspended. He also starts skipping school, and this could have serious consequences - under strict rules brought in with the aim of improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal children, attendance is directly linked to income support and family assistance. If children are regularly absent, their parents' welfare payments can be stopped. It also increases their risk of being taken into care.

Australia's "national shame"

When Dujuan doesn't come home from school one day, his mum and grandma go out looking for him until late in the night. If the police find him first, they will report it to welfare, and he could end up in foster care - or worse, juvenile detention.

"You know, your little age is the right age to go to juvenile centre," Megan warns him.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are vastly over-represented in the Australian penal system. Nationwide, they make up close to 70% of those aged 10-14 in youth detention, despite being only about 6% of the population in that age group. In the Northern Territory, in which Alice Springs is located, the situation is even worse: at the end of March, 31 out of 33 young people in detention (94%) were Aboriginal.

"Trust me, juvenile is not a good place to be," Dujuan's aunt Alexis tells him. "You're only going to end up in two places: a jail cell, or a coffin."

"What's a coffin?" asks Dujuan.

Dujuan's family move him to a different primary school, one that offers a bilingual curriculum. But he skips classes here too, and his late-night adventures on the streets of Alice Springs continue.

He's picked up by the police several times, and gets formal warnings that if he's found causing a nuisance again he'll be sent to juvenile detention, or taken into care.

"This is what happens to young boys in Alice Springs. This is the story of what it is to be a First Nations child in this country," Maya Newell says.

Finally, after stealing a teacher's car keys and throwing them on the school roof, Dujuan is expelled.

The Northern Territory department of education says its schools are supported to deliver the Australian curriculum framework in a "culturally responsive and engaging way" acknowledging the "rich culture and diversity" of the community.

It says schools can opt to use an "indigenous languages and cultures curriculum", including tuition in any of 30 languages, and that they are encouraged to share decision-making with families, communities and industry partners.

But Dujuan's family never felt these good intentions were reflected in the classroom.

"White people educate our kids in the way they want them to be educated, but I need [our kids] to speak the language," says Dujuan's grandmother, Carol.

Within living memory it was government policy to break the link between children and their Aboriginal ancestors and culture and to assimilate them into the white population.

Dujuan has grown up with stories of children being taken away to be brought up by white families. One of his great-grandmothers was taken, while another was hidden "way out bush" for safety.

William Tilmouth, chair of Children's Ground, a charity that teaches Aboriginal children through storytelling sessions like the one at which Dujuan and Maya first met, is an example of this "stolen generation".

"I can remember my eldest sister telling me that when they used to see Welfare coming down the road all the mothers used to run out, grab the kids and run straight back into the house, that way Welfare couldn't get them," he says.

He and all his siblings, however, were forcibly removed after his mother's death. The five oldest had whiter skin and were sent to Adelaide, where they were expected to "blend in", he says. He and two brothers were taken 1,400km from Alice Springs to be brought up in a Methodist mission, where they were banned from speaking their language.

"We never knew who our family were," he says. "It was a deliberate attempt to fragment the foundations of our lives, to the extent that we kept asking ourselves, 'Who are we?'"

Dujuan is at least in no doubt about this. "I was born a little Aboriginal kid," he tells Maya. "That means that I had a memory about Aboriginals. I just felt something, a memory. History. In my blood it runs."

When William ran away from a children's home he was placed in juvenile detention, which he describes as a "conveyor belt that led ultimately to the prison system".

Only when he was 17 was he able to hitchhike back to Alice Springs, to be reunited with his father, three years before he died.

Although the policy of assimilation is no longer explicit, William says, the draconian rules governing education and welfare mean the system is still set against indigenous children. He sees many parallels between his story and Dujuan's.

But Dujuan's family come up with a strategy to keep him safe - the same one that was used in his mother's case, before he was born. They send him to live in Borroloola, with his father, James Mawson.

"Kids like Dujuan go to detention centres. I wanted to move him away before that happened," says his mum, Megan. "We Aboriginal parents do love and care about our kids."

Despite the fact father and son have not seen each other for five years, it works out well. In Borroloola everyone pitches in, working the land and looking after cattle. Dujuan likes being able to spend weekends fishing or swimming in the family's homelands - and there are no armed patrols on the street.

"Borroloola is like a little town where you are related to everybody. It's better than Alice Springs, where there are many other kids that lead you into bad places, and lots of police that are watching over you," he says.

He is also happier at the community's small middle school, where 95% of students are indigenous.

"What I want is a normal life of just being me," he says at the end of the film, still only 11 years old. "And what I mean by 'me' is, I want to be an Aborigine."

Dujuan has since had to move out of Borroloola to finish high school. Now 14, he's doing well, but he's still not a huge fan. "It's boring to be in school, but I know there is knowledge I need to learn there," he writes via email.

The film is now being made available to schools in the UK, where one of the first to show it was Sunnydown school in Surrey, for boys with autism.

After the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, the head of English, Andrea Jensen, decided her year nine class would read Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the true story of three Aboriginal girls removed from their families in 1931 who walked 1,600 km (995 miles) home. In My Blood It Runs touches on many of the same themes.

But the students could also relate to the experience of not fitting in at school.

"I felt the same way as Dujuan did," says Elvin, 14. "Because when I was in primary school, I had to go into this special place for people with autism or physical disabilities. When I went out at break time, everyone would go away because they didn't want to play with me."

Matthew, 15, says he was made to use a different entrance. "They put me in a room all by myself and they covered the window so I couldn't see anybody else."

Dujuan says: "I made the film to give other Aboriginal kids hope and strength, but I think it can give all kids everywhere that too.

Jesse Thistle spent more than a decade on the streets and in jail. But despite this he has managed to become an expert on the culture of his Indigenous Canadian ancestors - with the help of his mother, from whom he was separated as a young child.

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The 'smart and cheeky' Aboriginal boy teaching Australia a lesson

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A documentary about a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy's experience in school, In My Blood It Runs, has reignited a debate about Australia's failure to give indigenous children a good education and a fair start in life. "Listen carefully," the teacher tells the class. "This one isn't a story, this is information, or non-fiction - it's fact."

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The founder of the blog was an aspiring comedian and PhD dropout named Christian Lander, who'd been working as an advertising copywriter in Los Angeles when he launched the site on a whim. In interviews, Lander always acknowledged that his satire had at least as much to do with class as it did with race. His targets, he said, were affluent overeducated urbanites like himself. Yet there's little doubt that the popularity of the blog, which depended for its humour on the assumption that whiteness was a contentless default identity, had much to do with its frank invocation of race. "As a white person, you're just desperate to find something else to grab on to," Lander said in 2009. "Pretty much every white person I grew up with wished they'd grown up in, you know, an ethnic home that gave them a second language."

Looking back at Stuff White People Like today, what marks the site's age is neither the particularities of its irony nor the broad generalities of its targets. There are still plenty of white people with too much time and too much disposable income on their hands, and plenty of them still like yoga (#15), Vespa scooters (#126), and "black music that black people don't listen to any more" (#116).

What has changed, however - changed in ways that date Stuff White People Like unmistakably - is the cultural backdrop. Ten years ago, whiteness suffused mainstream culture like a fog: though pervasive to the point of omnipresence, it was almost nowhere distinct. When the sorts of white people for and about whom Lander was writing talked about being white, their conversations tended to span the narrow range between defensiveness and awkwardness. If they weren't exactly clamouring to dispense with their racial identity, and the privileges that came with it, they were also not eager to embrace, or even discuss it, in public.

In the years since, especially among the sort of people who might have once counted themselves fans of Lander's blog, the public significance of whiteness has undergone an almost wholesale re-evaluation. Far from being a punchline for an anxious, cathartic joke, whiteness is now earnestly invoked, like neoliberalism or populism, as a central driver of cultural and political affairs. Whereas Lander could score a bestseller in 2008 with a book mocking whiteness as a bland cultural melange whose greatest sin was to be uninteresting, just nine years later Ta-Nehisi Coates would have his own bestseller that described whiteness as "an existential danger to the country and the world".

Much of the change, of course, had to do with Donald Trump, for whom, as Coates put it, "whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic, but is the very core of his power". But it was not only Trump. Whiteness has been implicated in events on both sides of the Atlantic, including Brexit; mass shootings in Norway, New Zealand and the US; the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor killings; and the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol. Alongside these real-world incidents, a bumper crop of scholarship, journalism, art and literature - by Coates, Nell Irvin Painter, Jordan Peele, Eric Foner, Ava DuVernay, Adam Serwer, Barbara and Karen Fields, Kevin Young, David Olusoga, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Colson Whitehead and Claudia Rankine, among many others - has spurred the most significant reconsideration of racial whiteness in 50 years.

This reckoning, as it is sometimes called, has had measurable effects. In a Pew poll last October, nearly a third of white Americans said that the recent attention to racial issues signified a "major change" in American attitudes about race - another 45% said it was a "minor change" - and nearly half believed that those changes would lead to policies that would ameliorate racial inequality. In the UK, a YouGov poll from December suggested that more than a third of Britons reported that they were having more discussions about racism than they had previously.

At the same time, this new focus on whiteness has prompted much confusion and consternation, especially among white people not used to thinking of themselves in racial terms. The Pew poll found that half of white Americans thought there was "too much" discussion of racial issues, and a similar proportion suggested that seeing racism where it didn't exist was a bigger problem than not seeing racism where it did.

What these recent debates have demonstrated more than anything, perhaps, is how little agreement still exists about what whiteness is and what it ought to be. Nearly everywhere in contemporary society "white" is presumed to be a meaningful index of identity that, like age and gender, is important enough to get mentioned in news accounts, tallied in political polls, and recorded in government databases. Yet what that identity is supposed to tell us is still substantially in dispute. In many ways, whiteness resembles time as seen by Saint Augustine: we presume we understand it as long as we're not asked to explain it, but it becomes inexplicable as soon as we're put to the test.

little more than a century ago, in his essay The Souls of White Folk, the sociologist and social critic WEB Du Bois proposed what still ranks as one of the most penetrating and durable insights about the racial identity we call white: "The discovery of personal whiteness among the world's peoples is a very modern thing - a nineteenth and twentieth century matter, indeed."

Though radical in its time, Du Bois's characterisation of what he called the "new religion of whiteness" - a religion founded on the dogma that "of all the hues of God, whiteness alone is inherently and obviously better than brownness and tan" - would have a profound effect on the way historians and other scholars would come to understand racial identity. In part this had to do with his insistence that a racial category like whiteness was more akin to a religious belief than a biological fact. Du Bois rejected the idea, still common in his day, that the races reflected natural divisions within the human species - as well as the nearly inevitable corollary that the physical, mental and behavioural traits associated with the white race just happened to be the ones most prized by modern societies.

That had been the view, for instance, of Thomas Jefferson, who had attemptedto delineate "the real distinctions which nature has made" between the races, in his Notes on the State of Virginia, first published in 1781. It was also the view that would appear, at least in attenuated form, two centuries later in Charles Murray and Richard J Herrnstein's Bell Curve, which was published in 1994. Murray and Herrnstein argued that "the most plausible" explanation for the differences between Black and white populations recorded on IQ tests was "some form of mixed gene and environmental source" - in other words, that at least some of the discrepancy owes to natural differences.

By the time The Bell Curveappeared, Du Bois's assertion that racial categories were not biologically grounded was widely accepted. In the years since, the scientific evidence for that understanding has only become more overwhelming. A 2017 study examined the DNA of nearly 6,000 people from around the world and found that while some genetic differences among humans can be traced to various ancestral lineages - for example, eastern African, southern European or circumpolar - none of those lineages correspond to traditional ideas about race.

If it's easy enough for many people today to accept that whiteness is a purely sociological phenomenon - in some quarters, the idea that "race is a social construct" has become a cliche - the same cannot be said for Du Bois's suggestion that whiteness is a relatively new thing in human history. And yet just as in the case of genetic science, during the second half of the 20th century a number of historians demonstrated that while Du Bois was off by a few hundred years, he was correct that it was only in the modern period that people started to think of themselves as belonging to something called the white race.

Of course, it's important not to overstate the case: the evolution of the idea of whiteness was messy and often indistinct. As the historian Nell Irvin Painter has cautioned, "white identity didn't just spring to life full-blown and unchanging". It had important antecedents that included a growing sense of a pan-European identity; longstanding cultural associations that saw white as a symbol of purity and virtue; and bog-standard ethnocentrism.

Still, with only slightly exaggerated precision, we can say that one of the most crucial developments in "the discovery of personal whiteness" took place during the second half of the 17th century, on the peripheries of the still-young British empire. What's more, historians such as Oscar and Mary Handlin, Edmund Morgan and Edward Rugemer have largely confirmed Du Bois's suspicion that while xenophobia appears to be fairly universal among human groupings, the invention of a white racial identity was motivated from the start by a need to justify the enslavement of Africans. In the words of Eric Williams, a historian who later became the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, "slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery".

That religious identity was crucial for the development of the English slave trade - and eventually for the development of racial whiteness. In the early 17th century, plantation owners in the West Indies and in the American colonies largely depended on the labour of European indentured servants. These servants were considered chattel and were often treated brutally - the conditions on Barbados, England's wealthiest colony, were notorious - but they were fortunate in at least one respect: because they were Christian, by law they could not be held in lifetime captivity unless they were criminals or prisoners of war.

Africans enjoyed no such privilege. They were understood to be infidels, and thus the "perpetual enemies" of Christian nations, which made it legal to hold them as slaves. By 1640 or so, the rough treatment of indentured servants had started to diminish the supply of Europeans willing to work on the sugar and tobacco plantations, and so the colonists looked increasingly to slavery, and the Atlantic-sized loophole that enabled it, to keep their fantastically profitable operations supplied with labour.

The plantation owners understood very well that their cruel treatment of indentured Europeans, and their even crueller treatment of enslaved Africans, might lead to thoughts - or worse - of vengeance. Significantly outnumbered, they lived in constant fear of uprisings. They were particularly afraid of incidents such as Bacon's Rebellion, in 1676, which saw indentured Europeans fighting side-by-side with free and enslaved Africans against Virginia's colonial government.

To ward off such events, the plantation owners initially sought to protect themselves by giving their "Christian" servants legal privileges not available to their enslaved "Negroes". The idea was to buy off the allegiance of indentured Europeans with a set of entitlements that, however meagre, set them above enslaved Africans. Toward the end of the 17th century, this scheme witnessed a significant shift: many of the laws that regulated slave and servant behaviour - the 1681 Servant Act in Jamaica, for example, which was later copied for use in South Carolina - began to describe the privileged class as "whites" and not as "Christians".

One of the more plausible explanations for this change, made by Rugemer and the historian Katharine Gerbner, among others, is that the establishment of whiteness as a legal category solved a religious dilemma. By the 1670s, Christian missionaries, including the Quaker George Fox, were insisting that enslaved Africans should be inducted into the Christian faith. The problem this posed for the planters was obvious: if their African labourers became Christians, and no longer "perpetual enemies" of Christendom, then on what legal grounds could they be enslaved? And what about the colonial laws that gave special privileges to Christians, laws whose authors apparently never contemplated the possibility that Africans might someday join the faith?

The planters tried to resolve the former dilemma by blocking the conversion of enslaved Africans, on the grounds, as the Barbados Assembly put it in 1680, that such conversion would "endanger the island, inasmuch as converted negroes grow more perverse and intractable than others". When that didn't work (the Bishop of London objected) they instead passed laws guaranteeing that baptism could not be invoked as grounds for seeking freedom.

But the latter question, about privileges for Christians, required the colonialists to think in a new way. No longer could their religious identity separate them and their servants from enslaved Africans. Henceforth they would need what Morgan called "a screen of racial contempt". Henceforth, they would need to start thinking of themselves as white.

The economic utility of the idea of whiteness helped spread it rapidly around the world. Du Bois was not wrong to call it a religion, for like a religion, it operated at every psychological, sociological and political scale, from the most intimate to the most public. Like a religion, too, it adapted to local conditions. What it meant to be white in British Virginia was not identical to what it would mean in New York before the American civil war, in India during the Raj, in Georgia during Jim Crow, in Australia after Federation, or in Germany during the Third Reich. But what united all these expressions was a singular idea: that some group of people called white was naturally superior to all others. As Benjamin Disraeli, the Victorian prime minister and one of the most committed race ideologists of his time, put it, "race implies difference, difference implies superiority, and superiority leads to predominance".

The idea of whiteness, in other words, was identical to the idea of white supremacy. For the three centuries that preceded the civil rights movement, this presumption was accepted at the most refined levels of culture, by people who, in other contexts, were among the most vocal advocates of human liberty and equality. It is well known that Immanuel Kant argued we should treat every other person "always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means". Less well known is his proposal, in his Lectures on Physical Geography,published in 1802, that "humanity is at its greatest perfection in the race of the whites", or his claim, in his notes for his Lectures on Anthropology, that native "Americans and Negroes cannot govern themselves. Thus, serve only as slaves". Even Gandhi, during the early part of his life, accepted the basic lie of whiteness, arguing that "the English and the Indians spring from a common stock, called the Indo-Aryan" and that "the white race in South Africa should be the predominating race".

As though aware of their own guilty conscience, the evangelists of the religion of whiteness were always desperate to prove that it was something other than mere prejudice. Where the Bible still held sway, they bent the story of Noah's son Ham into a divine apologia for white supremacy. When anatomy and anthropology gained prestige in the 18th and 19th centuries, they cited pseudo-scientific markers of racial difference like the cephalic index and the norma verticalis. When psychology took over in the 20th, they told themselves flattering stories about divergences in IQ.

For all their evident success, the devotees of the religion of whiteness were never able to achieve the total vision they longed for. In part, this was because there were always dissenters, including among those who stood to gain from it, who rejected the creed of racial superiority. Alongside those remembered by history - Elizabeth Freeman, Toussaint Louverture, Harriet Tubman, Sitting Bull, Franz Boas, Haviva Reik, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela - there were millions of now-forgotten people who used whatever means they possessed to resist it. In part, too, the nonsense logic that regulated the boundaries of whiteness - the one-drop rule in the US, which said that anyone with Black ancestry could not be white; the endless arguments over what "caucasian" was supposed to mean; the "honorary Aryan" status that Hitler extended to the Japanese - was no match for the robust complexities of human society.

Yet if the religion of whiteness was never able to gain acceptance as an unchallengeable scientific fact, it was still hugely successful at shaping social reality. Some of this success had to do with its flexibility. Thanks to its role in facilitating slavery, whiteness in the US was often defined in opposition to blackness, but between those two extremes was room for tactical accommodations. In 1751, Benjamin Franklin could claim that only the English and Saxons "make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth", and nearly 80 years later, Ralph Waldo Emerson would insist that the Irish, like the Chinese and the Native American, were not caucasian. Over time, however, the definition of who counted as culturally white expanded to include Catholics from southern Europe, the Irish and even Jews, who for centuries had been seen as quintessential outsiders.

The religion of whiteness also found success by persuading its adherents that they, and not the people they oppressed, were the real victims. In 1692, colonial legislators in British Barbados complained that "sundry of the Negroes and Slaves of this island, have been long preparing, contriving, conspiring and designing a most horrid, bloody, damnable and detestable rebellion, massacre, assassination and destruction". From there, it was a more or less straight line to Woodrow Wilson's claim, in 1903, that the southerners who started the Ku Klux Klan were "aroused by the mere instinct of self-preservation", and to Donald Trump's warning, when he launched his presidential campaign in 2015, that Mexican immigrants to the US were "bringing drugs. And they're bringing crime. And they're rapists."

Where the religion of whiteness was not able to win converts with persuasion or fear, it deployed cruder measures to secure its power, conscripting laws, institutions, customs and churches to enforce its prerogatives. Above all, it depended on force. By the middle of the 20th century, the presumption that a race of people called white were superior to all others had supplied the central justification not just for the transatlantic slave trade but also for the near-total extinction of Indians in North America; for Belgian atrocities in Congo; for the bloody colonisation of India, east Africa and Australia by Britain; for the equally bloody colonisation of north and west Africa and south-east Asia by France; for the deployment of the Final Solution in Nazi Germany; and for the apartheid state in South Africa. And those are merely the most extreme examples. Alongside those murdered, raped and enslaved in the name of whiteness, the total number of whom runs at least to nine figures, are an almost unthinkable number of people whose lives were shortened, constrained, antagonised and insulted on a daily basis.

Political appeals to white solidarity diminished slowly but certainly. In 1955, for example, Winston Churchill could still imagine that "Keep England White" was a winning general-election theme, and even as late as 1964, Peter Griffiths, a Conservative candidate for parliament, would score a surprise victory after endorsing a nakedly racist slogan. By 1968, however, when Enoch Powell delivered his "Rivers of Blood" speech - in which he approvingly quoted a constituent who lamented that "in 15 or 20 years' time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man" - he would be greeted by outrage in the Times, which called it an "evil speech", and expelled from the Conservative shadow cabinet. In the US, too, where a century of racial apartheid had followed a century of slavery, open expressions of racism met with increasing public censure. Throughout the 60s and into the 70s, Congress passed a series of statutes that rendered explicit racial discrimination illegal in many areas of public life.

This gradual rejection of explicit, government-enforced white supremacy was hugely consequential in terms of public policy. Yet it did not mean that whiteness, as a political force, had lost its appeal: in the weeks after Powell's speech, to take just one example, a Gallup poll found that 74% of Britons supported his suggestion that brown-skinned immigrants ought to be repatriated. It also left unresolved the more difficult question of whether whiteness was truly separable from its long history of domination.

Instead of looking too hard at the sordid history of whiteness, many white people found it easier to decide that the civil rights movement had accomplished all the anti-racism work that needed doing. The result was a strange détente. On the one hand, whiteness retreated as a subject of public attention, giving way to a new rhetoric of racial colour-blindness. On the other hand, vast embedded economic and cultural discrepancies allowed white people continue to exercise the institutional and structural power that had accumulated on their behalf across the previous three centuries.

Similarly, while blatant assertions of white power - such as the 1991 gubernatorial campaign of David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, in Louisiana - met with significant elite resistance, what counted as racist (and therefore subject to the taboo) was limited to only the most flagrant instances of racial animus. Among liberals and conservatives, racism was widely understood as a species of hatred, which meant that any white person who could look into his heart and find an absence of open hostility could absolve himself of racism.

Even the phrase "white supremacy", which predates the word "racism" in English by 80 years and once described a system of interlocking racial privileges that touched every aspect of life, was redefined to mean something rare and extreme. In 1923, for example, under the headline White Supremacy Menaced, the New York Times would print an article which took at face value a Harvard professor's warning that "one of the gravest and most acute problems before the world today" was "the problem of saving the white race from submergence in the darker races". In 1967, the US supreme court invalidated a law that prevented whites from marrying people who were not white, on the grounds that it was "obviously an endorsement of the doctrine of White Supremacy", and two years later, the critic Albert Murray would use the phrase to describe everything from anti-Black prejudice in police departments to bigoted media representations of Black life to influential academic studies such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan's The Negro Family.

By the 80s and 90s, however, at least in white-dominated media, "white supremacy" was reserved only for the most shocking and retrograde examples of racism. For many people who grew up at that time, as I did, the phrase evoked cross burnings and racist hooligans, rather than an intricate web of laws and norms that maintained disparities of wealth, education, housing, incarceration and access to political power.

Perhaps most perverse of all was the charge of "reverse racism", which emboldened critics of affirmative action and other "race-conscious" policies to claim that they, and not the policies' proponents, were the true heralds of racial equality. In 1986, Ronald Reagan went so far as to defend his opposition to minority-hiring quotas by invoking Martin Luther King Jr: "We want a colour-blind society," Reagan declared. "A society, that in the words of Dr King, judges people not by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character."

f course not everyone accepted this new dispensation, which scholars have variously described as "structural racism", "symbolic racism" or "racism without racists". In the decades following the civil rights movement, intellectuals and activists of colour continued to develop the Du Boisian intellectual tradition that understood whiteness as an implement of social domination. In the 80s and 90s, a group of legal scholars that included Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Cheryl Harris and Richard Delgado produced a body of research that became known as critical race theory, which was, in Bell's words, "ideologically committed to the struggle against racism, particularly as institutionalised in and by law".

Alongside critical race theory, and in many ways derived from it, a new academic trend, known as whiteness studies, took shape. Historians working in this subfield demonstrated the myriad ways in which the pursuit of white supremacy - like the pursuit of wealth and the subjection of women - had been one of the central forces that gave shape to Anglo-American history. For many of them, the bill of indictment against whiteness was total: as the historian David Roediger put it, "it is not merely that whiteness is oppressive and false; it is that whiteness is nothing but oppressive and false."

In the fall of 1992, a new journal co-founded by Noel Ignatiev, one of the major figures in whiteness studies, appeared in bookstores around Cambridge, Massachusetts. Called Race Traitor, the magazine wore its motto and guiding ethos on its cover: Treason to Whiteness is Loyalty to Humanity. The issue opened with an editorial whose headline was equally provocative: "Abolish the white race - by any means necessary." This demand, with its echoes of Sartre by way of Malcolm X, was not, as it turned out, a call for violence, much less for genocide. As Ignatiev and his co-editor, John Garvey, explained, they took as their foundational premise that "the white race is a historically constructed social formation", a sort of club whose membership "consists of those who partake of the privileges of the white skin in this society".

For Ignatiev and Garvey, whiteness had been identified with white supremacy for so long that it was folly to think it was salvageable. "So long as the white race exists," they wrote, "all movements against racism are doomed to fail." What was necessary, in their view, was for the people called "white" - people like them - to forcefully reject that identification and the racial privileges that came with it. Whiteness, they suggested, was a fragile, unstable thing, such that even a small number of determined attacks - objecting to racist educational programmes at a school board meeting, say, or capturing racist police behaviour on video - ought to be able to unsettle the whole edifice.

But while whiteness studies produced much work that still makes for bracing, illuminating reading, it was soon mocked as one more instance of the very privilege it meant to oppose. "The whole enterprise gives whites a kind of standing in the multicultural paradigm they have never before enjoyed," Margaret Talbot wrote in the New York Times in 1997. "And it involves them, inevitably, in a journey of self-discovery in which white people's thoughts about their own whiteness acquire a portentous new legitimacy." Even Ignatiev would later say he "wanted nothing to do with" it.

Meanwhile, younger white liberals, the sort of people who might have read Bell or Crenshaw or Ignatiev at university, tended to duck the subject of their own racial identity with a shuffling awkwardness. Growing up white in the decades after the civil rights movement was a little like having a rich but disreputable cousin: you never knew quite what to make of him, or the extravagant gifts he bought for your birthday, and so you found it easier, in general, just not to say anything.

The absence of talk about whiteness was so pervasive that it became possible to convince yourself that it constituted one of the central obstacles to racial progress. When I was in graduate school during the early 00s, toward the end of the whiteness-studies boomlet, I often heard - including from my own mouth - the argument that the real problem was that white people weren't talking enough about their racial identity. If you could get people to acknowledge their whiteness, we told ourselves, then it might be possible to get them to acknowledge the unfair ways in which whiteness had helped them.

The trouble with this notion would become clear soon enough, when the presidency of Barack Obama offered the surest test to date of the proposition that whiteness had separated itself from its supremacist past. Though Obama's election was initially hailed by some as proof that the US was entering a new post-racial phase, it took just a few months for the Tea party, a conservative movement ostensibly in favour of small government, to suggest that the opposite was closer to the truth.

In September 2009, Jimmy Carter caused a stir by suggesting that the Tea party's opposition was something other than a principled reaction to government spending. "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man," Carter said. (Carter's speculation was later backed up by research: the political scientist Ashley Jardina, for instance, found that "more racially resentful whites are far more likely to say they support the Tea party and rate it more positively.")

The white backlash to Obama's presidency continued throughout his two terms, helped along by Rupert Murdoch's media empire and the Republican party, which won majorities in both houses of Congress by promising to obstruct anything Obama tried to accomplish. Neither project kept Obama from a second term, but this does not mean that they were without effect: though Obama lost white voters by 12% in 2008, four years later he would lose them by 20%, the worst showing among white voters for a successful candidate in US history.

At the same time, Obama's victory suggested to some observers the vindication of the demographic argument: the changing racial composition of the US appeared to have successfully neutralised the preferences of the white electorate, at least as far as the presidency was concerned. ("There just are not enough middle-aged white guys that we can scrape together to win," said one Republican after Obama's victory.)

What's more, the first wave of Black Lives Matter protests, which attracted international attention in the summer of 2014, prompted a torrent of demonstrative introspection among white people, especially online. As the critic Hua Hsu would write, half-teasingly, in 2015, "it feels as though we are living in the moment when white people, on a generational scale, have become self-aware".

Not for the first time, however, what was visible on Twitter was a poor indicator of deeper social trends. As we now know, the ways in which whiteness was becoming most salient at mid-decade were largely not the ways that prompted recent university graduates to announce their support for Rhodes Must Fall on Instagram. Far more momentous was the version of white identity politics that appreciated the advantages of whiteness and worried about them slipping away; that saw in immigration an existential threat; and that wanted, more than anything, to "Take Back Control" and to "Make America Great Again".

It was this version of whiteness that helped to power the twin shocks of 2016: first Brexit and then Trump. The latter, especially - not just the fact of Trump's presidency but the tone of it, the unrestrained vengeance and vituperation that animated it - put paid to any lingering questions about whether whiteness had renounced its superiority complex. Ta-Nehisi Coates, who more than any other single person had been responsible for making the bumbling stereotype of whiteness offered up by Stuff White People Like seem hopelessly myopic, understood what was happening immediately. "Trump truly is something new - the first president whose entire political existence hinges on the fact of a black president," Coates wrote in the autumn of 2017. "His ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power."

The article was meant in part meant to mock the white authors and statesmen who had endlessly asked themselves a similar question about Black people in the US. But it was not only a spoof. In a tone that mimicked the smug paternalism of his targets, he laid out a comprehensive indictment of white rule in the country: the plunder and murder of the "Aborigines"; the theft and enslavement of Africans; the hypocrisy embodied by the American constitution, government and white churches. At the root of all this, he wrote, was "a long continued, extensive and almost complete system of wrongdoing" that made the men and women who enabled it into "restless, grasping" marauders. "In view of the existing state of things around us," Wilson proposed at the end, "let our constant thought be, what for the best good of all shall we do with the White people?"

Much has changed since Wilson's time, but a century and a half on, his question remains no less pertinent. For some people, such as the political scientist Eric Kaufmann, whiteness is what it has always pretended to be. Though he acknowledges that races are not genetically defined, Kaufmann nevertheless sees them as defensible divisions of humanity that have some natural basis: they emerge, he suggests, "through a blend of unconscious colour-processing and slowly evolved cultural conventions". In his 2019 book Whiteshift, Kaufmann argues that the history of oppression by white people is "real, but moot", and he advocates for something he calls "symmetrical multiculturalism", in which "identifying as white, or with a white tradition of nationhood, is no more racist than identifying as black". What shall we do with the white people? Kaufmann thinks we should encourage them to take pride in being white, lest they turn to more violent means: "Freezing out legitimate expressions of white identity allows the far right to own it, and acts as a recruiting sergeant for their wilder ideas."

From another perspective - my own, most days - whiteness means something different from other racial and ethnic identities because it has had a different history than other racial and ethnic identities. Across three-and-a-half centuries, whiteness has been wielded as a weapon on a global scale; Blackness, by contrast, has often been used as a shield. (As Du Bois put it, what made whiteness new and different was "the imperial width of the thing - the heaven-defying audacity.") Nor is there much reason to believe that whiteness will ever be content to seek "legitimate expressions", whatever those might look like. The religion of whiteness had 50 years to reform itself along non-supremacist lines, to prove that it was fit for innocuous coexistence. Instead, it gave us Donald Trump.

Yet even this does not fully answer Wilson's question. For if it's easy enough to agree in theory that the only reasonable moral response to the long and very much non-moot history of white supremacy is the abolitionist stance advocated in the pages of Race Traitor - ie, to make whiteness meaningless as a group identity, to shove it into obsolescence alongside "Prussian" and "Etruscan" - it seems equally apparent that whiteness is not nearly so fragile as Ignatiev and Garvey had imagined. Late in his life, James Baldwin described whiteness as "a moral choice", as a way of emphasising that it was not a natural fact. But whiteness is more than a moral choice: it is a dense network of moral choices, the vast majority of which have been made for us, often in times and places very distant from our own. In this way whiteness is a problem like climate change or economic inequality: it is so thoroughly imbricated in the structure of our everyday lives that it makes the idea of moral choices look quaint.

As with climate change, however, the only thing more difficult than such an effort would be trying to live with the alternative. Whiteness may seem inevitable and implacable, and Toni Morrison surely had it right when she said that the world "will not become unracialised by assertion". (To wake up tomorrow and decide I am no longer white would help no one.) Even so, after 350 years, it remains the case, as Nell Irvin Painter argues, that whiteness "is an idea, not a fact". Not alone, and not without much work to repair the damage done in its name, it still must be possible to change our minds.

This article was amended on 20 April 2021 to correct a reference to Eric Williams being the first president of Trinidad and Tobago. He was in fact the first prime minister.

Follow the Long Read on Twitter at @gdnlongread, llisten to our podcasts here and sign up to the long read weekly email here.

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The invention of whiteness: the long history of a dangerous idea

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The founder of the blog was an aspiring comedian and PhD dropout named Christian Lander, who'd been working as an advertising copywriter in Los Angeles when he launched the site on a whim. In interviews, Lander always acknowledged that his satire had at least as much to do with class as it did with race.

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The Impact of Linguistic Bias in Education | Camille Byrd O’Quin | TEDxLewisUniversity

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We are living through a historic reckoning on racial justice. The Black Lives Matter movement, which is a decentralized movement working to end police brutality against Black Americans, is considered to be one of the largest protest movements in the history of the United States. This movement began in 2013 after Trayvon Martin-a Black, teenage boy-was murdered, and it gained momentum over the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd sparked protests across the United States and the world.

Art has been a powerful tool in the Black Lives Matter movement because it has the power to change how we perceive ourselves, how we think about belonging and representation, and how we imagine the future. Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman writes in her poem "Pictures and Progress":

For a people to be rendered visible,
indivisible, vivid and vibrant as all the glass we carry,
We cannot just have a vision of justice.
We must be able to envision ourselves in that vision
for justice to be served,
For the right to representation that we all deserve.

This Teaching Idea helps students learn about the power of art as a tool for social change and the ways in which artists and activists use artworks-including poetry, photography, murals, music, and dance-in the fight for racial justice in the United States.

How Can Art Move Us?

Project a photo of the ballerinas Kennedy George and Ava Holloway standing in front of the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. ( Note: The original photo, which you can find at the beginning of the Dance Magazine article Meet Ava Holloway and Kennedy George, the Teens Whose Photo Dancing On a Confederate Statue Went Viral, contains profanity. For a version without profanity, pause the Inside Edition video Ballerinas Reclaim Space Home to Robert E. Lee Statue With Photo Shoot at 0:06, and share that image with your students instead.) Ask your students:

What aspects of this photo stand out to you?

Where do you find beauty in this image?

Tell your students that this photo depicts two young ballerinas who participated in the protests that occurred over the summer of 2020 at the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia. Then, read the following excerpt from the Richmond Times-Dispatch article How a photo of young ballerinas at the Lee statue became an iconic image of Black Lives Matter with your students:

When 14-year-old dancers Kennedy George and Ava Holloway heard that the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue was coming down, they knew they had to be there.

They headed out in their matching black ballerina skirts and pointe shoes for an impromptu photo session.

"We went to the monument to capture a joyous moment," Kennedy said.

Kennedy and Ava have been dancing since they were 3 years old at the Central Virginia Dance Academy.

"Dance, for me, is like the better half of myself," Kennedy said. "It's like my alter ego. It helps express different parts of who I am."

"I feel stronger, I feel graceful, I feel confident when I'm dancing," Ava said.

With the backdrop of the Lee pedestal covered with graffiti behind them, Kennedy and Ava stood proudly on pointe, wearing black tutus and raising their fists in a symbol of strength.

Ask your students:

Has your initial response to this photo changed now that you know more about the context? If so, how?

What do you think Kennedy and Ava's dance meant to them?

What do you think this dance meant to the people who saw it or saw the image? What do you think this suggests about the power of art and representation?

Remote Learning Note: Use screen share to show your students the image of the ballerinas Kennedy George and Ava Holloway. Ask your students to share their reflections on the photo through the chat. Read the excerpt from the article How a photo of young ballerinas at the Lee statue became an iconic image of Black Lives Matter with your students, and again ask them to respond in the chat.

How Has the Black Lives Matter Movement Used Art?

In this activity, students analyze artwork that has been inspired or used by the Black Lives Matter movement, focusing on street murals depicted in the Verge article 33 Powerful Black Lives Matter Murals. You can also ask students to analyze the additional examples listed at the end of this activity or examples from your local area.

Show your students the images in the article 33 Powerful Black Lives Matter Murals. Then, ask your students to choose one mural to analyze. ( Note: Depending on social distancing requirements, you can ask students to work individually or in pairs. Students can also complete their analysis outside of class as homework.) Ask students to use the following questions to guide their analysis:

What aspects of this mural stand out to you?

What do you think the message(s) of this mural are?

Who do you think might see this mural? How do you think it might impact the people who see it?

Once students finish analyzing their murals, ask for volunteers to share their ideas about the different murals.

In addition to the murals in the Verge article 33 Powerful Black Lives Matter Murals, you can also ask students to analyze the following sources, which include poetry and music as well as visual art:

Remote Learning Note: Place students in triads in breakout rooms to analyze a mural. Then, bring students back together as a class and ask volunteers to share their ideas about the different murals.

How Can Art Create Social Justice?

Ask your students to reflect in their journals on the following prompt:

In her TED Talk How Images Shape Our Understanding of Justice, Professor Sarah Lewis discusses the power that art and images have to make us see ourselves and our society differently. She says:

[P]ublic moments of justice begin with private, internal moments. Moments in which we are able to be still, to shift the speed of our processing, to decelerate. These are the moments in which we start to see what we did not know we did not know. This is at the heart of justice, this self correction, the ability to be humble to acknowledge our past failures and to make way for a new, imagined future.

Reflect:

Professor Lewis believes art can make people slow down and see things from new perspectives. How do you think the mural you analyzed might help people do this?

Professor Lewis believes art can help us imagine a more just future. How do you think the mural you analyzed might help people do this?

Remote Learning Note: Ask students to reflect individually in their journals, either during class or as homework.

Extension: Ask Students to Find or Create Examples of Art for Social Justice

Ask your students to bring examples of art (such as a poem, photo, mural, song, or dance) that they see as part of the movement for racial justice in the United States. Students should explain what they think the message of the piece is. Alternatively, students could choose to create their own piece of artwork (such as a poem, photo, mural, song, or dance).

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Art, Imagination, and the Quest for Racial Justice

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We are living through a historic reckoning on racial justice. The Black Lives Matter movement, which is a decentralized movement working to end police brutality against Black Americans, is considered to be one of the largest protest movements in the history of the United States.

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Graffiti artists and muralists are using boards as blank canvases

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How Images Shape Our Understanding of Justice

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How do images alter our sense of justice? Social media has changed how we ingest images. Protests, state violence, natural disasters, grief and loss are all played out in photos and videos in real time unlike anything we thought possible just a few decades ago.

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If it bleeds, it leads. The old newsroom adage about milking stories for sensationalism seems truer than ever today. And with technology doing the heavy lifting -- sending updates, tweets, posts, and breaking news alerts directly to our kids' phones -- we parents are often playing catch-up. Whether it's wall-to-wall coverage of a global pandemic, the latest natural disaster, a horrific mass shooting, a suicide broadcast on social media, or a violent political rally, it's nearly impossible to keep the news at bay until you're able to figure out what to say. The bottom line is that elementary school-aged kids and some middle schoolers have trouble fully understanding news events. And though older teens are better able to understand current events, even they face challenges when it comes to sifting fact from opinion -- or misinformation.

No matter how old your kids are, threatening or upsetting news can affect them emotionally. Many can feel worried, frightened, angry, or even guilty. And these anxious feelings can last long after the news event is over. So what can you do as a parent to help your kids deal with all this information?

Addressing News and Current Events: Tips for all kids

Consider your own reactions. Your kids will look to the way you handle the news to determine their own approach. If you stay calm and rational, they will, too.

Take action. Depending on the issue and kids' ages, families can find ways to help those affected by the news. Kids can write postcards to politicians expressing their opinions; families can attend meetings or protests; kids can help assemble care packages or donate a portion of their allowance to a rescue/humanitarian effort. Check out websites that help kids do good.

Tips for kids under 7

Keep the news away. Turn off the TV and radio news at the top of the hour and half hour. Read the newspaper out of range of young eyes that can be frightened by the pictures (kids may respond strongly to pictures of other kids in jeopardy). Preschool kids don't need to see or hear about something that will only scare them silly, especially because they can easily confuse facts with fantasies or fears.

Stress that your family is safe. At this age, kids are most concerned with your safety and separation from you. Try not to minimize or discount their concerns and fears, but reassure them by explaining all the protective measures that exist to keep them safe. If the news event happened far away, you can use the distance to reassure kids. For kids who live in areas where crime and violence is a very real threat, any news account of violence may trigger extra fear. If that happens, share a few age-appropriate tips for staying and feeling safe (being with an adult, keeping away from any police activity).

Be together. Though it's important to listen and not belittle their fears, distraction and physical comfort can go a long way. Snuggling up and watching something cheery or doing something fun together may be more effective than logical explanations about probabilities.

Tips for kids 8-12

Carefully consider your child's maturity and temperament. Many kids can handle a discussion of threatening events, but if your kids tend toward the sensitive side, be sure to keep them away from the TV news; repetitive images and stories can make dangers appear greater, more prevalent, and closer to home.

Be available for questions and conversation. At this age, many kids will see the morality of events in stark black-and-white terms and are in the process of developing their moral beliefs. You may have to explain the basics of prejudice, bias, and civil and religious strife. But be careful about making generalizations, since kids will take what you say to the bank. This is a good time to ask them what they know, since they'll probably have gotten their information from friends, and you may have to correct facts.

Talk about -- and filter -- news coverage. You might explain that even news programs compete for viewers, which sometimes affects content decisions. If you let your kids use the Internet, go online with them. Some of the pictures posted are simply grisly. Monitor where your kids are going, and set your URLs to open to non-news-based portals.

Tips for teens

Check in. Since, in many instances, teens will have absorbed the news independently of you, talking with them can offer great insights into their developing politics and their senses of justice and morality. It will also help you get a sense of what they already know or have learned about the situation from their own social networks. It will also give you the opportunity to throw your own insights into the mix (just don't dismiss theirs, since that will shut down the conversation immediately).

Let teens express themselves. Many teens will feel passionately about events and may even personalize them if someone they know has been directly affected. They'll also probably be aware that their own lives could be affected by violence. Try to address their concerns without dismissing or minimizing them. If you disagree with media portrayals, explain why so your teens can separate the mediums through which they absorb news from the messages conveyed.

Additional resources

For more information on how to talk to your kids about a recent tragedy, please visit the National Association of School Psychologists or the American Psychological Association. For more on how news can impact kids, check out News and America's Kids: How Young People Perceive and Are Impacted by the
Marie-Louise Mares, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, contributed to this article.

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If it bleeds, it leads. The old newsroom adage about milking stories for sensationalism seems truer than ever today. And with technology doing the heavy lifting -- sending updates, tweets, posts, and breaking news alerts directly to our kids' phones -- we parents are often playing catch-up.

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When tragedy strikes, as parents you find yourself doubly challenged: to process your own feelings of grief and distress, and to help your children do the same.

I wish I could tell you how to spare your children pain, when they've lost friends or family members, and fear, when disturbing events occur, especially when they're close to home. I can't do that, but what I can do is share what I've learned about how to help children cope and process disturbing events in the healthiest way.

As a parent, you can't protect you children from grief, but you can help them express their feelings, comfort them, help them feel safer, and teach them how to deal with fear. By allowing and encouraging them to express their feelings, you can help them build healthy coping skills that will serve them well in the future, and confidence that they can overcome adversity.

When something happens that will get wide coverage, my first and most important suggestion is that you don't delay telling your children about what's happened: It's much better for the child if you're the one who tells them. You don't want them to hear from some other child, a television news report, or the headlines on the front page of the New York Post. You want to be able to convey the facts, however painful, and set the emotional tone.

Invite them to tell you anything they may have heard about the tragedy, and how they feel. Give them ample opportunity to ask questions. You want to be prepared to answer (but not prompt) questions about upsetting details. Your goal is to avoid encouraging frightening fantasies.

It's okay to let your child know if you're sad, but if you talk to your child about a traumatic experience in a highly emotional way, then they will likely absorb your emotion and very little else. If, on the other hand, you remain calm, they are likely to grasp what's important: that tragic events can upset our lives, even deeply, but we can learn from bad experiences and work together to grow stronger.

Talking about death is always difficult, but a tragic accident or act of violence is especially tough because of how egocentric children are: they're likely to focus on whether something like this could happen to them. So it's important to reassure your child about how unusual this kind of event is, and the safety measures that have been taken to prevent this kind of thing from happening to them. You can also assure them that this kind of tragedy is investigated carefully, to identify causes and help prevent it from happening again. It's confidence-building for kids to know that we learn from negative experiences.

In your conversation (and subsequent ones) you can suggest ways your child might remember those they've lost: draw pictures or tell stories about things you did together. If you're religious, going to church or synagogue could be valuable.

Don't volunteer too much information, as this may be overwhelming. Instead, try to answer your child's questions. Do your best to answer honestly and clearly. It's okay if you can't answer everything; being available to your child is what matters. Difficult conversations like this aren't over in one session; expect to return to the topic as many times as your child needs to come to terms with this experience.

If your child is upset, just spending time with them may make them feel safer. Children find great comfort in routines, and doing ordinary things together as a family may be the most effective form of healing.

Drawing pictures, planting a tree, or sharing stories can all be good, positive ways to help provide closure to a child. It's important to assure your child that a person continues to live on in the hearts and minds of others. Doing something to help others in need can be very therapeutic: it can help children not only feel good about themselves but learn a very healthy way to deal with grief.

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Helping Children Cope With Frightening News - Child Mind Institute

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How to talk to children about upsetting or frightening news to help them cope in the healthiest possible way.

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During the pandemic, there has been a steep rise in racial discrimination, harassment, and physical assaults against Asian American youth. Parents play a key role in supporting children who may face these attacks or see this behavior around them.

The William James College Center for Multicultural and Global Mental Health (CMGMH) Asian Mental Health Program, in collaboration with the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Cross Cultural Student Emotional Wellness, has developed a Guide to provide parents with the knowledge and skills to effectively support their children.

The guide is available in multiple languages, as listed below.

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Guide for Parents of Asian/Asian American Adolescents

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During the pandemic, there has been a steep rise in racial discrimination, harassment, and physical assaults against Asian American youth. Parents play a key role in supporting children who may face these attacks or see this behavior around them.

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Talking to Teens about Anti-Asian Discrimination in the Era of COVID-19 - MGH Center

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As COVID-19 infections increase, so too does racism and xenophobia. Use our "Speak Up" strategies to let people know you're not OK with racist or xenophobic comments about coronavirus or anything else.

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Amid the pandemic, Asian American people continue to experience racism, violence and harassment. These resources can help you teach the historical precedents for this moment, introduce ways for students to recognize and speak up against coronavirus racism, and start conversations with even the youngest learners about recognizing and acting to address injustice.

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The Racist Origins of Police | Decoded (Season 8)

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However, schools can develop solutions to better retain these teachers by confronting systemic issues related to why they leave. Bristol's latest research unlocks effective strategies schools can apply to keep Black and Latinx teachers engaged in their practice and committed to K-12 teaching. The former New York City educator explains that retaining and supporting educators of color can disrupt notions of white supremacy and foster inclusivity. "Now, more than ever, we need people of color standing in front of our children in our classrooms," he says, and what's really at stake is creating a supportive environment for teachers and students alike.

A school staffed for success

Bristol says there are different levers to engage in order to retain Black and Latinx educators. One of those levers is teacher preparation programs. Teachers of color in predominantly white teacher certification programs often struggle with feeling like their identity is not reflected in their coursework with curriculums that overlook their experiences and privilege the preparation of white middle-class educators. These conditions often prevent teachers of color from showing up as their full selves, and make them more likely to grow weary or disengaged with K-12 teaching.

Another element of teacher prep programs relates to how they perceive students of color. Students are better supported when teacher prep programs prepare all teachers to engage with Black and Latinx learners by actively challenging deficit perspectives about students of color. Too often, educators are reluctant and even fearful when it comes to talking about race. However, developing school-wide racial and cultural literacy through professional development opportunities can equip them with some level of competency. Even among teacher-to-teacher relationships, a discomfort with race often leads to "typecasting" teachers of color as solely responsible for caring for, disciplining or supporting students of color and creating a disproportionate burden that also contributes to leaving the profession.

And the pandemic has only exacerbated the pressures teachers of color are experiencing because Black and Latinx people have been harmed by coronavirus at higher rates than other groups. "The burden is both the weight of experiencing this virus in ways that their white colleagues may not, then also having to worry about that for their own students," Bristol says.

It has become increasingly important that when Black and Latinx teachers choose to teach in lower performing schools, which usually serve predominantly Black and Latinx children, school leaders need to make sure there are additional investments in services such as social workers, counselors and school nurses to support teachers and keep them from burning out. Additionally, there needs to be a feedback mechanism to keep administrators informed about any necessary changes they may need to make to positively shape school working conditions.

While many schools are rushing to reopen, Bristol advises that districts must make sure to attend to the mental and emotional supports that all teachers - especially teachers of color - need in order to teach. That includes taking time before school reopens to provide professional learning opportunities that prepare teachers to help students make sense of the pandemic. "Before we bring children back, we have to bring teachers back," he says.

Thought partnership and affinity groups

Teaching has never been an easy or straightforward profession. With the added nuance of being a teacher of color who is already underrepresented in the profession, it's no surprise that having a support network can provide serious relief. Even though each classroom poses dynamically different challenges, gathering with a workplace affinity group where members share a key identity offers community and comfort. Within the intimate confines of an affinity group, educators can address challenges, engage in honest dialogue and cultivate critical thought-partnership with colleagues and trained facilitators.

Bristol also says affinity groups should be part of professional development requirements and participants should be compensated for attending. "Too often, we place extra responsibilities on people of color, and this can't be something extra."

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Strategies for Retaining Teachers of Color and Making Schools More Equitable - MindShift

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The majority of K-12 students in the U.S. are people of color but the teaching profession is about 20 percent. UC Berkeley professor Travis Bristol has research into how teachers of color benefit all students and the work schools must do to retain them.

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Center for Mindfulness & Compassion - Boston

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Featured News: CMC was awarded a research grant titled "Neural and physiologic effects of self-compassion on chronic pain" from the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. This grant provides seed funding for a pilot neuroimaging study examining self-compassion training for people experiencing chronic lower back pain.

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Anti-racism training is all the rage. At its June 25 meeting the Massachusetts Association of School Committees called on all school districts to support a resolution against racism. More specifically, the Association urged schools to "offer professional development on diversity, equity and inclusion for its staff; hire a diverse teaching staff; and for curriculum to include the history of racial oppression and works from diverse perspectives." According to one of the resolution's authors, school committee members "have to acknowledge that the things we do day in and day out can have a racist undertone to them."

A week in advance of the association's meeting, the Worcester School Committee unanimously approved three resolutions relating to equity and racism. One was for the administration to provide "therapeutic support and training for discussions of race, ethnicity, and bias in school settings." In order for teachers to have effective discussions about race and racism with their students, one committee member maintained, "teachers need instructional and social and emotional support." Four days earlier, the City Council declared racism a "public health emergency," with one councilor calling for "racial equity training for elected officials," while another called for the restoration of the informal "Undoing Racism" program that was carried on until a few years ago. It is to be feared, in light of these resolutions, that the School Committee's next step will be to require that such training be incorporated into the public school curriculum (as in Buffalo's adoption of the New York Times-devised "1619 Project," a heavily biased program designed to teach students that slavery and racism are at the heart of what the United States is and always has been about).

Introducing anti-racism training into the curriculum would be a really bad idea. "Racism" once had a clear meaning: the doctrine or belief that members of some racial or ethnic groups are inherently inferior to others, and hence merit discriminatory treatment. By all evidence, however, "racism" in that sense, and policies based on it, have undergone a vast decline in America over the past 75 years. The decline began with the desegregation of major league baseball in 1947, of the armed forces in 1948, Southern public schools starting in 1954, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. We've seen an increasing proportion of Blacks in colleges, in the professions, and in elected office at all levels of government, culminating in the election and re-election of the first Black president. There has been an increasing rate of interracial marriages and a vast reduction in the economic disparities between Blacks raised in two-parent families who complete high school or college, take regular jobs, and avoid becoming parents until after marriage, and whites who follow the same course. (The steady improvement in race relations and in the economic, political, and educational situation of Blacks was documented more than two decades ago by the distinguished scholars Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom in their monumental 1997 study "America in Black and White.")

But in the wake of the George Floyd killing, and other, scattered instances of police misconduct, the decline in racial prejudice has now been denied, thanks to the invention of terms like "systemic racism" and "unconscious bias," which respectively hold that all disparities among members of different racial/ethnic groups - in income, occupation, education and the rate of incarceration - are necessarily the consequence of bias and that all non-"minority" members suffer from unconscious if not conscious bias, that must be "cured" by subjecting them to "re-education" by "anti-racism trainers" (who need not be minority members themselves, since they alone are free from the bias that all other "whites" possess.)

Along with those terms came "white privilege" - alleging that all "white" people regardless of their economic situation at birth or now, or how recently they or their parents immigrated to this country, or how hard they've worked, owe their "status" to unearned "privilege," and hence are guilty of bias by virtue of skin color. "Anti-racism training" based on the premise that all white people except the trainers are biased and must be cured by being forced to publicly admit their guilt and promise to atone for it (the premise of Robin DiAngelo's New York Times bestseller "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism") is reminiscent of nothing so much as Maoist China's "cultural revolution" of the '60s, in which teachers and other professionals were similarly subject to public denunciation and even physical assault, followed by loss of jobs and exile to the countryside. (To prove her premise that "all white Americans are a product of white supremacy and are actively or unwittingly complicit in maintaining this power structure," as Maureen Callahan points out in a recent New York Post column, DiAngelo, like a lunatic Freudian therapist, explains that "if you say you are not racist," that very fact proves "that you are racist." Heads she wins, tails you lose - an approach that has so far netted her $2 million from book sales alone.)

As described in a recent New York Times Magazine story on DiAngelo, professional anti-racist trainers maintain that the cause of any racial disparities in income, political power, or incarceration rates is the values embedded in "white culture." These include: the "ideology of individualism," the belief in meritocracy, the view that hard work and talent are rewarded, favoring written work over relating stories, and history over memory. According to anti-racism doctrine, the focus of science and education on the use of quantitative data, and belief in the regular relationship between cause and effect, is all a white prejudice. In consequence, "Eurocentric" knowledge is elevated above non-white, indigenous and non-European "knowledges." (Note the plural: there is no such thing as objective truth, just rival claims about reality. Here DiAngelo draws on the new field of "whiteness studies," which asks "whether what we define as scientific research and scholarly rigor, and what we venerate as objectivity, can be ways of excluding alternative perspectives and preserving white dominance." For instance, I infer, any claim based on rigorous research that a particular vaccine is more effective in protecting against the COVID-19 virus than, say, rubbing Vaseline on your nose is just one more means of racist domination.)

It is highly unlikely (to put it mildly) that students (Black or white) taught to disbelieve in science, quantitative data, historical facts, or objective reasoning are being well prepared for success in life. (Who would want to employ a doctor, lawyer, or scientist, a teacher, financial adviser, or a clerical worker, trained in such nonsensical attitudes?) Such training has, however, proved quite lucrative for Ms. DiAngelo herself, who (besides her book royalties) reportedly earns fees ranging up to $30,000-$40,000 for a single session lasting a few hours, just to liberate public and private executives and pedagogues from the "fragility" they exhibit by refusing to acknowledge their bigotry.

To cite one more example, Marcus Moore, an anti-racism trainer for a group called Courageous Conversations, uses a manual that lists such "white values" that allegedly "undercut black kids" as using "the King's English," "objective, rational, linear thinking," and "quantitative emphasis," along with the habits of putting "work before play," "planning for the future," and "adherence to rigid time schedules." According to Moore, "white culture" is obsessed with "mechanical time"-clock time and thus punishes students for lateness. He concludes that tremendous harm is done to Black children and adults forced to "bend to whiteness, in substance, style, and format." In reality, however, claims that black people are inherently incapable of planning for the future, putting work ahead of play, planning, and showing up for work on time are reminiscent of the worst sort of racist prejudices once commonly expressed in the South.

To be honest, what Moore defines as "white culture" most people (regardless of race) would see as mores and customs designed to enable all citizens, in a nation based on individual rights and responsibilities and on equal opportunity for all once the barriers of prejudice are stripped away (such as has already occurred in large measure) to succeed. By denying that Black people are capable of taking advantage of the opportunities available in this nation that has brought freedom, health, and wealth to so many millions, regardless of their original economic background, Moore would consign them to lives of poverty, dependency and social stigma.

Above and beyond discouraging Black students from studying hard and adopting the other habits of behavior that make for success in a free society, anti-racism training is bound to generate increasing social strife, resulting from the belief of now-aggrieved Blacks that any failures on their part are the result of oppression, and the reaction of whites who resent being subjected to indoctrination grounded on false allegations about their racial attitudes. Exaggerated claims that most police forces, government agencies, schools, and businesses are biased against minorities will also enable anti-liberal, anti-democratic groups like the anarchist Antifa movement and even professed advocates of violent revolution in the name of Communist dictatorship (who expressed these views in an Aug. 1 demonstration in Lincoln Square) to gain adherents among the gullible (whether Black or white).

Finally, anti-racism training diverts attention from policies that would actually help Black people. These include better police training (in cities that require it) combined with firm police presence that (since the 1980s), employing Compstat and "broken windows" policing, has brought about a major reduction in killings of inner-city youth. More charter schools, like the Success Academy network in New York City and the KIPP Academy national network which have succeeded in closing the achievement gap between white and minority students, would help families who can't afford private schooling to escape frequently ineffective regular public schools. (So would vouchers to help youth from poor families to attend private and parochial schools.) Yet the teachers' unions and even the presumptive Democratic nominee for president oppose charter school expansion despite widespread support by minority parents. Finally, we need to restore civic education, in place of the ideological indoctrination provided by Howard Zinn's "History of the United States" or the 1619 Project that has come to dominate the teaching of history/ social studies in many public as well as private schools. (For parents seeking a more balanced and inspiring account of our country's history, I warmly recommend Wilfred McClay's new book, "Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story.")
-Roberta Schaefer is the founder and former president of Worcester Regional Research Bureau.

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Introducing anti-racism training into schools would be bad idea

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Anti-racism training is all the rage. At its June 25 meeting the Massachusetts Association of School Committees called on all school districts to support a resolution against racism. More specifically, the Association urged schools to "offer professional development on diversity, equity and inclusion for its staff; hire a diverse teaching staff; and for curriculum to include the history of racial oppression and works from diverse perspectives."

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How you can take action right now:

Movement 4 Black Lives Week of Action

Opportunities for White People to Fight for Racial Justice

Raising Changemakers

Resources for talking to your children:

Talking to Children after Racial Incidents (Penn GSE)

How To Talk To Your Kids About Race, Racism And Police Violence (WBUR)

A Parent’s Guide to Preventing and Responding to Prejudice (PDF) (Ages 2 to 18)

Talking To Kids About Racism & Police Brutality

Books for children and teens:

Anti-Racism For Kids 101: Starting To Talk About Race Booklist (Ages 2+)

NYT Booklist by Age

Books to Teach White Children and Teens How to Undo Racism

Books:

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work by Tiffany Jewell

Articles:

Understanding Race and Privilege (National Association of School Psychologists)

What is White Privilege, Really? (Teaching Tolerance)

What’s My Complicity? Talking White Fragility With Robin DiAngelo

Videos:

5 Easy Ways to Be an Ally

Systemic Racism Explained

Let’s Talk: Why are Cities Still so Segregated? (NPR)

How Redlining Shaped Black America as We Know It (The Root)

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

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Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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by Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock, Lead Curator at we are

Our Durham-based organization, we are (working to extend anti-racism education), regularly holds antiracism workshops for teachers. What follows are some of the resources we recommend teachers use with 6th through 12th graders.

Media

Graphic Novels

New Kid by Jerry Craft - Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade.As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds--and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?

Nat Turner by Kyle Baker - The story of Nat Turner and his slave rebellion--which began on August 21, 1831, in Southampton County, Virginia--is known among school children and adults. To some he is a hero, a symbol of Black resistance and a precursor to the civil rights movement; to others he is monster--a murderer whose name is never uttered. In Nat Turner, acclaimed author and illustrator Kyle Baker depicts the evils of slavery in this moving and historically accurate story of Nat Turner's slave rebellion. Told nearly wordlessly, every image resonates with the reader as the brutal story unfolds.

Books

Middle School

This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell - Who are you? What is racism? Where does it come from? Why does it exist? What can you do to disrupt it? Learn about social identities, the history of racism and resistance against it, and how you can use your anti-racist lens and voice to move the world toward equity and liberation.

Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, & You by Jason Reynolds & Ibram Kendi - The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.

Ghost Boys by Jewel Parker Rhodes - Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. As a ghost, he observes the devastation that's been unleashed on his family and community in the wake of what they see as an unjust and brutal killing.
Soon Jerome meets another ghost: Emmett Till, a boy from a very different time but similar circumstances. Emmett helps Jerome process what has happened, on a journey towards recognizing how historical racism may have led to the events that ended his life. Jerome also meets Sarah, the daughter of the police officer, who grapples with her father's actions.

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People by Roxanne Dunbar, adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese - "Dunbar-Ortiz's narrative history is clear, and the adapters give readers ample evidence and perspective to help them to engage with the text. A highly informative book for libraries serving high school students."-School Library Journal, Starred Review

Front Desk by Kelly Yang - Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed. Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language? It will take all of Mia's courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia - In One Crazy Summer, eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. But when the sisters arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with their mother, Cecile is nothing like they imagined.While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.

Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez - Anita de la Torre never questioned her freedom living in the Dominican Republic. But by her twelfth birthday in 1960, most of her relatives have immigrated to the United States, her Tío Toni has disappeared without a trace, and the government's secret police terrorize her remaining family because of their suspected opposition to Trujillo's iron-fisted rule.
Using the strength and courage of her family, Anita must overcome her fears and fly to freedom, leaving all that she once knew behind.

Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson - It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat--by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for A Room to Talk), they discover it's safe to talk about what's bothering them--everything from Esteban's father's deportation and Haley's father's incarceration to Amari's fears of racial profiling and Ashton's adjustment to his changing family fortunes. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.

A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramee - Tensions are high over the trial of a police officer who shot an unarmed Black man. When the officer is set free, and Shay goes with her family to a silent protest, she starts to see that some trouble is worth making.

High School

We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love - Drawing on her life's work of teaching and researching in urban schools, Bettina Love persuasively argues that educators must teach students about racial violence, oppression, and how to make sustainable change in their communities through radical civic initiatives and movements. She argues that the US educational system is maintained by and profits from the suffering of children of color. Instead of trying to repair a flawed system, educational reformers offer survival tactics in the forms of test-taking skills, acronyms, grit labs, and character education, which Love calls the educational survival complex.
To dismantle the educational survival complex and to achieve educational freedom--not merely reform--teachers, parents, and community leaders must approach education with the imagination, determination, boldness, and urgency of an abolitionist. Following in the tradition of activists like Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin, and Fannie Lou Hamer,We Want to Do More Than Survive introduces an alternative to traditional modes of educational reform and expands our ideas of civic engagement and intersectional justice.

Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur - This presents the life story of African American revolutionary Shakur, previously known as JoAnne Chesimard.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander - Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.Most important of all, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander's unforgettable argument that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." As the Birmingham News proclaimed, it is "undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S."

White Rage by Carol Anderson - As Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in August 2014, and media commentators across the ideological spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as "black rage," historian Carol Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in The Washington Post suggesting that this was, instead, white rage at work. With so much attention on the flames, she argued, everyone had ignored the kindling.

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris - In a work that Lisa Delpit calls "imperative reading," Monique W. Morris (Black Stats, Too Beautiful for Words) chronicles the experiences of Black girls across the country whose intricate lives are misunderstood, highly judged--by teachers, administrators, and the justice system--and degraded by the very institutions charged with helping them flourish. Called "compelling" and "thought-provoking" by Kirkus Reviews, Pushout exposes a world of confined potential and supports the rising movement to challenge the policies, practices, and cultural illiteracy that push countless students out of school and into unhealthy, unstable, and often unsafe futures.

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele - Condemned as terrorists and as a threat to America, these loving women founded a hashtag that birthed the movement to demand accountability from the authorities who continually turn a blind eye to the injustices inflicted upon people of Black and Brown skin. Championing human rights in the face of violent racism, Patrisse is a survivor. She transformed her personal pain into political power, giving voice to a people suffering inequality and a movement fueled by her strength and love to tell the country--and the world--that Black Lives Matter.When They Call You a Terrorist is Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele's reflection on humanity. It is an empowering account of survival, strength and resilience and a call to action to change the culture that declares innocent Black life expendable.

Between the World & Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates - Coates shares with his son--and readers--the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children's lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Racism without Racists by Bonilla-Silva - Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's acclaimed Racism without Racists documents how, beneath our contemporary conversation about race, there lies a full-blown arsenal of arguments, phrases, and stories that whites use to account for--and ultimately justify--racial inequalities. The fifth edition of this provocative book makes clear that color blind racism is as insidious now as ever. It features new material on our current racial climate, including the Black Lives Matter movement; a significantly revised chapter that examines the Obama presidency, the 2016 election, and Trump's presidency; and a new chapter addressing what readers can do to confront racism--both personally and on a larger structural level.

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Antiracist Resources to use with 6th to 12th graders

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Our Durham-based organization, we are (working to extend anti-racism education), regularly holds antiracism workshops for teachers. What follows are some of the resources we recommend teachers use with 6th through 12th graders. New Kid by Jerry Craft - Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life.

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>> NARRATOR: Tonight on Frontline, two stirring reports about education across America.

First, in Louisiana.

Some parents want to break away from the Baton Rouge school district and start their own.

>> These are some of the worst schools in the country.

Nobody's getting educated in these schools.

>> It will be segregated along race lines and class lines.

>> NARRATOR: The fight over education and desegregation.

>> The Justice Department achieved their goal.

Who can say we're not desegregated?

We have an African-American president.

We've been through all that.

We need to let us go back and rebuild our schools now.

>> NARRATOR: And later tonight... Frontline checks back in with a teenager who made the most of her middle school moment.

>> I'm incredibly proud of your accomplishments.

>> Oh, Ms. Miller, you're going to make me cry!

>> NARRATOR: Two powerful stories, one exclusive hour of Frontline.

>> Caleb.

Caleb.

Come on, get up.

>> NARRATOR: Nikki Dangerfield is a single mother with four children.

She works long hours as a FedEx manager.

>> I get up at the crack of dawn and sometimes I don't get home from work until 6:00, 7:00, maybe 8:00.

And then cook dinner, talk to the kids, and then sometimes I'm talking to them but halfway sleeping.

It's like, "Okay, Mama, go to bed."

So yes, I'm very busy, but I'm only busy for them.

>> You got your workbook?

>> I cannot pay for an education, but I would like for them to get the best public education that they could.

>> NARRATOR: Half a century ago, her children's educational options would have been limited by their skin color.

Baton Rouge, like most of the South, had a segregated school system.

But after a hard-fought civil rights battle, her children now have alternatives to the struggling schools in their own neighborhood.

>> As a whole, I feel that the public school system has done right by my family.

>> Bye, Mom, love you.

>> I love you, too, have a good day.

>> You, too.

>> NARRATOR: Every morning before dawn, the Dangerfield kids wait for buses that will carry them to integrated schools throughout Baton Rouge.

>> I think the benefit of the kids going to schools with different cultures, with children that have different economic backgrounds, they see a better life and they can say, "Okay, what can I do to have a better life?

They can dream bigger.

>> These schools are some of the worst schools in the country.

They're some of the most violent schools in the country.

Nobody is getting educated in these schools.

>> NARRATOR: But not everyone is happy with how busing has changed the schools here.

>> What have they done?

Where is their plan to better the schools?

>> NARRATOR: Fed up with what they say are dangerous, failing, and mismanaged schools, a group of residents has come up with a plan.

>> The line actually comes down here... >> NARRATOR: They've begun a movement to form an entirely new city out of a large area of suburban neighborhoods, taking part of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System with them.

>> You know, thank you for coming out tonight.

(voice breaking): I see these children here.

That's why we're here.

These children right here are why we're here.

EBR's failed our children for 30-plus years.

>> NARRATOR: The new city would be called St. George and would be whiter and more affluent than Baton Rouge.

>> And starting right here, with this petition right here, we have the opportunity to make a difference.

We can do it.

So come on up and sign the petition.

Thank you.

(applause) >> We've had enough of failing our children.

We're not going to do it anymore, and we'll go to the length of creating our own city to create our own education system to take control back from the status quo.

>> Hey, over here, look!

>> The fight hasn't even started yet.

The powers that be will do everything that they can do to make this not happen.

>> NARRATOR: It will take roughly 18,000 signatures to get the idea on a ballot, and the group hopes to achieve that by the end of 2014.

>> The idea of breaking away and forming a new school district... >> NARRATOR: Around the country, movements like the one in Baton Rouge have been spreading over the past several years.

>> There is talk of secession in East Dallas... >> And the city of Pelham is thinking about declaring its independence from the Shelby County school system... >> They say their city should have control over their own schools.

>> NARRATOR: In city after city, mostly middle class parents dissatisfied with their public school districts are trying to break away.

>> I think it would help out a lot if we, you know, broke off and became our own district.

>> NARRATOR: The goal is to create smaller, community-oriented school systems.

>> The city of Brookhaven is acting in their own best interest.

>> NARRATOR: But the result is often school districts that are less racially and economically diverse.

>> They are carving out a section of town that is wealthier and whiter than what they are leaving behind.

>> NARRATOR: Critics are concerned that decades after the civil rights victories of the 1960s, the era of school integration may be coming to an end.

>> If Martin Luther King were to come back and see where we are now, I think he'd be shocked to see that the schools are actually more segregated than they were when he died.

>> NARRATOR: Professor Orfield says that a series of Supreme Court rulings have eroded much of the progress made since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision 60 years ago.

>> The Supreme Court really began to turn backwards decisively on desegregation in 1991.

So basically, that began the dismantling of desegregation plans across the country.

And almost all of the larger ones have now been dismantled in our big cities.

>> NARRATOR: In Baton Rouge, the desegregation order was lifted in 2003.

The student population is now 11% white.

And many in the school district are concerned that number will drop even lower if the St. George proposal succeeds.

>> And that is not fair to the children who remain behind... >> NARRATOR: Belinda Davis, a local activist with three children in the Baton Rouge schools, is vowing to prevent the creation of the new city of St. George.

>> You are automatically going to be creating a city that is less diverse than the one you are leaving.

And we have all kinds of specialized services in schools that we are able to provide because of the size of our school district.

All of that is in jeopardy if this new school system is created.

>> There are about 6,696 students that will be displaced if the new city school district is created.

>> I mean, this is about lives.

This is about potential that we are squashing by continuing to carve up our school district.

That we could do wonderful things together.

We're stronger as one than we are broken up into pieces.

>> NARRATOR: Among those fighting to keep the school district intact is Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden.

>> We do not allow a small group of people to divide us, weaken our capital city, bankrupt our future.

>> NARRATOR: But he faces stiff opposition from some of his constituents.

>> Thank you all for the opportunity to address you, and I'm free to answer any questions that you have.

Yes, sir.

>> I was watching the news one night and they had you on TV that you are opposed to this area becoming a St. George city.

>> Yes, sir.

>> And the question is, why would you want to oppose letting the people of this area vote on that issue?

>> Well, because first of all, Baton Rouge has come too far as a united city.

I'm against division when it's not needed.

>> The city of St. George will still be in the parish of East Baton Rouge Parish.

It will not be separating.

>> Well, it will separate in this sense.

The plan that's out there will be trying to take money allocated for the whole parish and operate their city.

>> NARRATOR: Holden says that the school district relies on the taxes paid by the more affluent neighborhoods now trying to break away, and that without that money, the schools will suffer.

>> What will happen is, that the city of Baton Rouge would have to stand alone.

They would not be able to siphon money from the other cities outside of Baton Rouge that's being paid into the parish.

>> It will be segregated along race lines and class lines.

It is going to be devastating to the school system as a whole.

A lot of the poor areas will not be receiving the same quality education.

>> Are you saying we're supplementing these people right now?

>> Yes.

>> We're supplementing them that be in trouble?

>> We're supplementing each other.

>> I came from a poor background, but yet it was the fact that I was introduced to a broader range of people and things that allowed me to get out of those poor circumstances up to where I am now.

>> I think the frustration lies in the fact that people are fed up with this money that I'm talking about getting put into the city revenue stream, and we're not getting the return on it.

>> We're trying to tell people, you know, "It's time for us to stick together.

"We've come too far.

Too much progress has been made to turn that clock back."

>> NARRATOR: To understand what the two sides are fighting over, it helps to look at Woodlawn High.

Its story is the same as thousands of others.

When it was founded in 1949, most of its 286 students lived nearby, and they were all white.

>> How has Woodlawn changed over the years?

I think all you need to do is go down the hallway by the gym and see the different senior class pictures, and you're going to see the increase in diversity.

That's the main difference that I see, is just greater representation of all peoples in society here.

>> NARRATOR: Today, Woodlawn has over 1,200 students, and its population is around 60% African American.

The school has special programs for gifted and talented students.

>> These are non-diluted acids.

>> NARRATOR: There's an orchestra and marching band.

Advanced placement classes.

And a popular football team.

But schools in the district have also been struggling.

Around 40% of them are rated "D" or "F," and the state has taken over part of the school system.

Woodlawn also has its share of problems.

>> We're a C-rated school.

We made some gains last year.

We're excited that we're going to probably make some gains this year.

Obviously we want to be a "B" and we want to ultimately be an "A."

I'm proud of what we're doing here.

>> Let's go, clear the halls!

>> NARRATOR: That progress isn't enough for Norman Browning, the leader of the St. George campaign.

>> Our children aren't getting an education.

They're failing our children because our children are not getting the education they deserve.

>> NARRATOR: Browning says that years of busing stemming from the civil rights era have destroyed the sense of community for a lot of Baton Rouge schools.

>> Parents want schools that their children can go to in their neighborhood.

I'm against transporting children out of the neighborhoods to go clear across town to go to school.

I can look back to my school years, the neighborhood schools, and being sent to the principal's office, and principal saying, "Boy, you want me me to call your daddy?"

You know, because you know what?

I knew he knew my father.

It's about bringing community back.

It's about bringing schools back to our community.

>> NARRATOR: He is no stranger to Woodlawn High.

>> Close to 15 years, I've volunteer coached at Woodlawn High School.

So my involvement with this campaign really stems from what I saw from the inside: the lack of control in the classrooms, the lack of control in the halls.

>> NARRATOR: The school has been plagued with discipline issues: 61 arrests in 2013.

>> These are the things that just totally disrupt other students who are there to get an education.

>> NARRATOR: Students have even posted videos of fights on YouTube.

(kids shouting) Browning's group seized on them in a scathing ad.

>> The principal doesn't have the proper people in there to control the students.

They're babysitting them.

They're not educating them, they're babysitting them.

>> We've been described as a zoo, even.

When you put 1,200 kids in a building with over 90 faculty members, you're going to have conflict.

That's part of... That's the nature of it.

So I take offense to people who say this is a dangerous school, and I really get a little upset when individuals from outside our school characterize us that way and they've never stepped foot in our school.

>> Well, I'm a parent of two kids in public schools.

I'm concerned about discipline also.

That doesn't mean I want to essentially secede from the Union.

I want to, you know, work with the principal, work with the parents, and let's see what the problems are.

>> NARRATOR: Domoine Rutledge is the school district's attorney and was involved in Baton Rouge's desegregation efforts.

He says the schools overall have been improving, and it's not busing that's been a problem, it's that white families have been leaving.

>> You know, it's a question of almost which came first, the chicken or the egg.

Because without the forced busing, you probably would not have had the white flight.

However, you probably would have still had, for too long a period of time, a system that was not desegregated, which was the mandate.

We've got to desegregate these schools, and we've got to have everybody embrace the concept that regardless of color, we can go to school together and get along and get educated.

>> NARRATOR: That's exactly the opportunity Nikki Dangerfield's kids are taking advantage of.

She says the East Baton Rouge Parish school system may not be perfect, but it gives them options.

>> My three boys go to three different middle schools, the reason being, each school caters to them.

Aaron is in the gifted program.

He goes to one of the middle schools.

They have the best gifted program in Baton Rouge.

Zephaniah goes to a school that has smaller classroom settings because that's what he needs.

Caleb is in performing arts.

So he goes to McKinley Middle.

That is a performing arts school.

>> NARRATOR: But if the new city of St. George happens, many of the district's schools would become part of it, including Woodlawn High, which is where Aaron would like to go because despite its problems, it's rated better than the high school in his neighborhood.

>> I'd like to go to Woodlawn High because it has a gifted program and a football team, so I can be able to play high school football at the same time as I focus on my work in school.

I want a high school that has sports programs and has, like, science programs and technology programs.

>> NARRATOR: Dangerfield's oldest daughter Joy was her high school valedictorian.

Today, she's a student at LSU.

>> My mom was talking to me about the school choices for my little brother Aaron, and, you know, she was telling me how much he wanted to attend Woodland High.

>> You can't master the game unless you put it on All-Madden.

>> My mom talked to the secretary, and she explained to her that, you know, he couldn't attend that school because he doesn't live in that area and then that they were pulling away.

And so she told my little brother Aaron and he was really upset because he was like, "Well, Mom, that's the only school I want to go to."

>> If St. George happened, they're going to take the better schools with them.

You're no longer giving other kids a choice.

>> NARRATOR: It's not just that kids like Aaron wouldn't be able to enroll at Woodlawn; there's fear that some students already enrolled there, many of them poor and minorities, could be asked to leave.

>> I would assume that if boundaries change, there may be some students who would no longer attend this school.

Certainly as principal of Woodlawn High School, I want to attract students to our school as opposed to losing any students.

So it would be...

It would be sad.

I'm sorry.

Because as principal, you grow attached to every student you have, and I would hate to see anyone leave.

So the saddest thing to me would be for kids to not have the opportunity to express their own opinions about where they want to go to school.

>> East Baton Rouge Parish was probably the best public school system in the '60s and early '70s.

>> NARRATOR: State Senator Bodi White has already helped another neighborhood split off and form its own school system.

He's a long-time opponent of federally mandated busing.

>> The federal government, through their actions, I think the forced busing, it just destroyed the school system.

>> NARRATOR: The fight to desegregate the Baton Rouge schools was one of the longest in the nation.

For 15 years beginning in 1981, the school district was forced to bus its children to achieve integration.

>> And I'll use me as an example.

I had a choice to put my five-year-old daughter on school bus and give her an hour bus ride to a school that was two to three years behind the national average in testing.

Busing children forced the middle class and upper middle class families to drop out of public education.

>> You saw a mass exodus of white families from the school system.

Unfortunately, too many of them decided, "We fear the unknown and we're not going to do it."

>> NARRATOR: Today, while there is no federally forced busing, parents can still have their children bused to better schools around Baton Rouge.

With the St. George proposal, Rutledge is worried Baton Rouge is taking a step backwards.

>> The end result of that is, it excludes children.

And those children are minority children.

Those children are black children.

We have done a full throttle reversal in this community, and we are resegregating our school system.

>> NARRATOR: The issue has become deeply divisive.

>> When I read headlines such as the fact that this is nothing but a secession to get away from the low-income citizens as well as making it a race issue, it's extremely disturbing to me.

This is nothing more than a middle-class community incorporating a city.

>> Thank you, we appreciate it.

>> Yes, I've been called a racist, and in no uncertain terms.

I'm not a racist.

I can't, you know...

I'm not going to try to attempt to defend it.

What I do is I let my actions speak, and how I conduct myself and how I treat people speak.

>> NARRATOR: The St. George advocates argue that the racial and financial implications of their plan are being exaggerated.

But the opponents point to a 2013 analysis by LSU economists which predicts the new city would be around 70% white.

And leave Baton Rouge with a big annual deficit.

>> People who do things that have racial implications always say that race has nothing to do with it.

I mean, I'm not judging what their personal motivations are, but nobody ever says, "We intentionally just want to discriminate" when they do something that will have the effect of deepening inequality.

>> NARRATOR: Despite the opposition, the petition to make St. George a reality is picking up steam.

At the end of 2013, the group said it had over 9,000 signatures-- half of what's needed to get the issue put on a ballot.

>> NARRATOR: The Reverend C.L.

Bryant, a Tea Party activist, came to Baton Rouge to support the St. George movement.

Father and our God, we ask you now to watch over these faithful men as they try to bring into the existence and call that thing which be not as though it were a new city in this great land that you have given us, America.

Thank you for it.

>> Amen.

>> Hello, my fellow Louisianians.

You have, I believe, a very unique opportunity.

You have people who want to divide us down racial lines.

You must do what is right for your pocketbook, and don't you be afraid of what they call you.

Don't you allow anyone to turn you back from that.

Americans, I would ask you to stand up!

Stand up!

>> Happy to see all of you here tonight.

These folks are trying to do what's right, and as we go through this campaign, there's a lot of pressure.

There will be a lot of folks trying to scare you.

That's the name of the game, it's called intimidation.

The middle class in this parish, you're taking back control of your kids and your destiny.

>> This evening made me very sad.

That basically they're now talking about this, you know, in terms of income and that it's okay to segregate yourself from poor people.

And that it is okay for you to do what is right for your pocketbook without thinking about your entire community and the people that you're harming in the process.

It was... it was very sad.

>> Good turnout.

>> Oh, I expected that.

>> This group of white parents want to have the best for children, and forget about anybody else.

>> NARRATOR: State Representative Patricia Smith has been a vocal opponent of the effort to create the new school district.

>> The proponents of the school district don't like to hear this, but it's totally going to be segregation.

When you look at the children who will be removed from the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, children who are going to go into this new St. George, the majority of children are white, and the majority of children that will be removed from St. George will be black.

>> Do you think that you have to bus children all over, bus them long distance, so you can say you sit in a seat next to someone diverse, different from yourself?

The Justice Department, you know, they achieved their goal.

Who can say we're not desegregated?

We have an African-American president, we have an African-American mayor here in Baton Rouge with a majority white in the parish.

We've been through all that.

We need to let us go back and rebuild our schools now.

>> I believe that folks are beginning to get in their heads, many conservatives are saying, "We have a black president, "so we don't have to worry about anything else dealing with black folk across the country."

That is not true.

We're now beginning to realize that you can never stop the fight for racial equality.

You can never stop that fight.

>> I think Baton Rouge as a whole will suffer.

Not just our schools.

And I don't think that people should have the right to change history.

They are taking resources from people that need them the most.

All schools should be created equal.

>> NARRATOR: The St. George advocates say they are getting close close to their goal and are within a few thousand signatures of getting on the ballot later this year.

>> This can be wonderful for all of us, for our families.

We can have a great city of St. George.

It doesn't mean it has to hurt the city of Baton Rouge.

The only one who's going to hurt the city of Baton Rouge is Baton Rouge.

I'm tired of hearing the remarks in the news media and in the paper about how it's going to destroy East Baton Rouge Parish, how it's going to destroy Baton Rouge.

The only way that happens is if they let it.

(applause) >> NARRATOR: Months later, in mid-May, the city council would pass a measure designed to stop the St. George petition, and the group has vowed to fight back in court.

>> We've got a wonderful opportunity here.

The state capital can't stop this.

The city council can't stop this.

Mayor Holden can't stop this.

As long as we want it.

(applause) >> NARRATOR: Coming up next on Frontline... As a team, Omarina was part of an innovative program to prevent her from dropping out of school.

>> Omarina really struggles with the opportunities she has.

>> NARRATOR: Did it work?

>> I can't just think about all the things that are going wrong.

I just think about the things that might be going right.

>> NARRATOR: Omarina's story begins right now.

♪ ♪ >> ♪ Dona nobis pacem, pacem ♪ ♪ Dona nobis pacem.

♪ >> NARRATOR: It's the last day of the semester at the Brooks School, an exclusive private academy in North Andover, Massachusetts.

Omarina Cabrera is halfway through her sophomore year.

>> I remember first getting here, it definitely was an adjustment.

>> We pray for our families... >> A lot of kids here are very wealthy and well off, and their parents are very important people.

I go back to a two-bedroom apartment in the middle of the Bronx.

>> And we pray for our school, that we may always be a home for innocence and truth.

>> And then I come here, and the environment was definitely a shock.

>> Give us this day our daily bread... >> NARRATOR: That she made it here at all is surprising.

Without the help of a groundbreaking program in middle school, she probably wouldn't have.

(sirens) We've been following Omarina since 2012, when we began examining the dropout crisis in America's high-poverty schools.

At that time, she was a student at Middle School 244 in the Bronx, and she had been struggling.

>> My first year here, me and my mom got evicted.

I felt shattered.

That was the home that I had for my whole life, and I grew up there.

I didn't know what was going to happen next.

That period of not knowing wasn't something that I felt comfortable with.

I felt this inkling in me that I would never want my children or anyone else to experience this.

>> NARRATOR: Shuffled between relatives' apartments, some without even electricity, Omarina suffered another loss.

>> When I was really young, my father walked out, for whatever reason.

I finally got in touch with him.

Just before we were about to talk and I was about to go see him, he had gotten a stroke.

And I had to leave to the Dominican Republic and see my father for the first time, and it was in a casket.

>> NARRATOR: With her home life in chaos, Omarina's school life began to suffer.

She didn't know it, but she was starting down a path that so many other young people take.

Every year, over a million students fail to finish high school.

But Omarina was lucky.

Her school had recently implemented an experimental program designed to catch faltering students like her.

>> Even kids in the most dire circumstances really want a future.

They just need to have a path to it.

>> NARRATOR: Robert Balfanz, one of the nation's top education researchers, had been searching for that path for 15 years by studying kids who were dropping out of high school.

Then he realized that the key moment when kids begin to go off track was actually in middle school.

>> What does that refer to?

Stephanie?

>> When nine divides the parabola into two equal parts.

>> If in the middle grades, you develop habits of not coming to school regularly, of getting in trouble or failing your courses, you bring that with you to high school.

And the schools aren't designed to help them succeed.

>> NARRATOR: In search of the warning signs that could help schools identify their most at-risk students, Balfanz and his team harvested data from dozens of high-poverty schools-- schools where at least 40% of the kids qualify for government-subsidized lunch.

>> We looked at about 40 different variables, and we put that into a big statistical analysis and said, "We want factors that are highly reliable and also yield a large number of kids in trouble."

>> NARRATOR: And within this chaotic tangle of data, several important indicators stood out.

>> And basically, out of this mix, four came out really strong.

And that was our sort of eureka moment.

I saw kids waving their hands saying, "Help.

Help me stay on track."

>> NARRATOR: The data showed that if a sixth-grade child in a high-poverty school is absent more than 20% of the time, or fails math or English, or receives an unsatisfactory behavior grade in a core course, there is a 75% chance that they will drop out of high school unless there is decisive intervention.

>> It may seem far less than rocket science, but it's something that, in fact, schools by and large have not paid attention to.

>> NARRATOR: But Middle School 244 did.

At the direction of principal Dolores Peterson, it became one of the first schools in the nation to put Balfanz's theories into action.

>> The Balfanz research was so interesting to us because we looked at it and we said, "This is a great way to identify our students at a very early stage."

>> NARRATOR: Students like Omarina, who had been showing up late or not at all.

>> At the beginning, I felt alone and I felt ashamed, and I didn't want to speak to anyone about it.

I just isolated myself from everything and everyone.

>> NARRATOR: But the data spoke for Omarina.

Every week at Middle School 244, statistics are collected and reviewed by a team of counselors and teachers.

>> Attendance... Everyone's with me?

>> Yes.

>> Let's go to 802.

Omarina.

How is Omarina doing?

>> NARRATOR: The students most in need are flagged.

>> Currently, her mother's not even in the United States right now.

She was in a shelter not that long ago.

Then they were evicted, so she's having to go between relatives.

>> NARRATOR: A counselor is assigned, and an intervention is organized.

>> I took her home one day, and it's like a...

It's a double commute.

It's a bus to a train.

It's on the other side of the world, you can say.

>> I can't tell you how much I worry every time she leaves this building.

>> When she leaves this building, you know, she's on her own.

>> Our students face challenges sometimes that young children shouldn't have to face.

And they need that support of the adult to help them through it.

>> It's all going to work out, and it's... >> NARRATOR: Catherine Miller was Omarina's homeroom teacher.

>> So once Omarina was identified, it was imperative on my part as a homeroom teacher, in consultation with the guidance counselor and administration to discuss why she was coming in late so many times.

>> They came to me and they asked me, "What's wrong?

"You've been late a lot.

Something has to be wrong."

And that's when I told Ms. Miller that I was evicted.

>> Your mother needs to feel safe, or she needs to feel good about where you are, as do you.

And the best we can do right now... We can compile thousands of numbers about who's failing this or who's passing that, but if there's no response to that data, if there's no initiative taken to understand that data, it's all for naught.

>> NARRATOR: It became clear that a chaotic home life was the source of Omarina's problems at school, and she needed targeted practical support.

>> So you're going to take this one today... >> NARRATOR: The team helped her figure out routes to school from ever-changing addresses, got her a bus pass and books.

>> Ms. Miller told me that I can break through it, that I'm strong enough, that I have the courage to do it.

And the fact that she believed in me, I believed in me.

And that's something that a lot of people go through.

>> They need an adult counterforce.

Someone to say, "Did you get your work done?

Let me make sure you understand it."

And also deal with, like, "I know you're having trouble "with this teacher or that teacher, or these kids.

Let's work it out, let's solve it now."

It's that sense of shepherding is what the kids need to know that an adult not only cares, but the adult can actually help them.

>> How's it going at home?

>> It's good.

It's not completely settled because of my mom, but I think it's calmer than before.

My first year here, I had a lot of different things going on.

I had my brother, who was so smart, and he was just like me.

He's my twin.

My brother began to be exposed to a lot of the things that were out there.

And not only him, but a lot of us were.

Not a lot of kids make the right choice, and that is happening a lot of times in the Bronx for a lot of people.

>> NARRATOR: In the summer after sixth grade, Omarina's twin brother, Omarlin, started hanging out on the streets and getting in trouble.

His mother had him moved to another school, thinking he'd be safer in a different neighborhood.

But when we met him at the end of eighth grade, Omarlin was rarely attending school, and his high school plans were uncertain.

>> Where am I going to go to high school?

I don't know.

I haven't gotten a letter yet of acceptance.

>> The fact that he got involved with the streets and the fact that he let the neighborhood influence him, he just began slipping off the mountain, slipping off, slipping off, slipping off.

It really was a difficult time for me.

However, I think the only reason I got through it was because of support people brang to me, Ms. Miller and my guidance counselor.

The fact that they told me, "You're bright /and you're special," and drove me and encouraged me, told me never to quit and never let your dreams end at the corner of Sedgwick Avenue.

I don't think I would be where I am today.

(applause) And I wish my brother could have gone on the journey with me, as well.

>> NARRATOR: Soon, Omarina had achieved near perfect attendance and had an average in the 90s.

>> It's not a linear, it's not a quadratic.

Who agrees and why?

Omarina.

>> Because when you solve -B over 2A to get the vertex... >> NARRATOR: And her teachers encouraged her to apply to some of the nation's best high schools.

>> That was your best essay.

Read it to me again.

I love it!

>> "Typically, young adults look upon a political figure or someone in their life for guidance and support.

I, on the other hand, seem to find this inspiration within a black-and-white street sign.

Imprinted on the sign are the words 'One Way.'

It taunts me with another reminder that coming in is not the obstacle, but making it out."

I don't think that me and my brother are on the same road, and I think he fell off and it's really sad.

The way you take in school is important.

He didn't, and that's why we're going on different paths, I guess.

>> Any school can use this system to keep kids on track, and what's going to vary from school to school is the extent they're going to need to recruit an outside second shift of adults to help, and that's going to really just depend on the sheer number of kids.

>> ...exactly happen to make your grade go down, because... >> NARRATOR: There are now more schools with intervention programs like Middle School 244's than when we filmed there two years ago, but they are still very rare in America's high-poverty communities.

>> That's what makes it so interesting with my brother.

I think that's what I would be.

I would be not in the school, and I think I would be...

I wouldn't care, and the fact that I would get into a college wouldn't be that big of a deal.

And the fact that I go on to high school, that wouldn't matter to me.

"I can get my GED later," that's what I would say.

>> NARRATOR: As middle school was coming to an end, Omarina learned she'd been accepted at nine competitive high schools.

>> Omarina, I'm so excited for you.

So what did you decide?

Which school did you choose?

>> After giving it a lot of thought, I went with Brooks.

>> So are you excited?

>> Yeah, I'm really excited.

>> I know I am!

How does it feel, Ms. Miller?

>> It's very humbling.

And I'm incredibly proud of your accomplishments.

>> Oh, Ms. Miller!

You're going to make me cry!

>> NARRATOR: It was a momentous achievement for a girl who was at risk of becoming one of Balfanz's statistics just two years earlier.

Now it was off to the elite learning environment of Brooks, where both the students and the expectations would be very different than what she was used to.

The question was, would all the work in middle school pay off here?

So we've been keeping track of how Omarina and, by comparison, her brother Omarlin, have been doing.

>> When I first came here, I was nervous that I was way too different to fit in here.

There was a senior who greeted us at the door.

She smelled like strawberries.

Everyone is really well off and there's people... on their vacation they travel to Argentina and they travel to China.

So yeah, there's times when you notice little subtle comments, or little subtle things that aren't really even meant for... People don't even mean to say them or do them, but they just happen, they just come out because people aren't aware or people haven't been exposed to certain things.

I think they are genuinely curious and genuinely want to know how I do my hair in the morning, or do I think in Spanish?

Or...

I don't know, was I born here?

>> Brooks School is not the same school that she came from in New York.

It certainly does not have the same kind of ethnic makeup as what she's used to, so she has, I think, felt out of place at times here.

>> It might be hard at times, and it might feel impossible to change everyone's mind about what a girl from the Bronx should look like or should act like.

I feel like it's important to try so that they don't make others feel as uncomfortable as they made me.

>> NARRATOR: In this new environment, the pressure on Omarina isn't just social.

In the beginning, she says, she struggled to keep up in class.

>> One-zero equals two, one-one equals three.

>> For the first half of the semester, I kept getting these horrible grades, and I didn't understand why.

>> Look at the last digit.

>> I remember getting my first quiz back and almost throwing up.

Because I had a 60%.

And I think that was the moment when I realized, "Yeah, I'm not getting by if I don't work really, really, really hard."

During those times when, you know, it feels like a little bit too much, not even just socially but academically, as well-- and there are those times at Brooks, there are those meltdowns-- I feel like I do have a strong faculty to support me.

I have the help of Mrs. Ware, I have Ms. Miller, who is always with me regardless of where I am.

(phone ringing) Miss Miller, I call her "Mama Miller."

>> Good morning!

>> Good morning.

>> What classes do you have this morning?

>> I have Algebra II, Latin... She's seen me grow up.

>> How did you study for the chem test?

>> Just went over my notes...

I'm very, very, very fortunate to have her.

>> I felt as though it was really imperative to keep very constant contact.

>> Bye, Miss Miller, love you!

>> Just to make sure that the adjustment was going well, but also knowing that, you know, many people were rooting for her to be successful here in the Bronx.

>> You're messing with me.

Don't take away what I have.

Don't you dare do that to me!

...I messed up.

(laughs) >> NARRATOR: She was determined to succeed, and the teachers at Brooks saw her potential.

>> Omarina, what do you need to do to get better?

>> Memorize my lines.

>> That's the nuts and bolts.

>> Come back later today, and I will have it graded.

>> I had four dorm parents, I had my advisor, I had all my teachers always making sure I was okay, always constantly there.

>> Omarina is not the kind of kid that lets mediocrity rule.

She's not happy with that at all, and so she gets kind of feisty and angry and wants to fix it.

And so it's been great to kind of watch that growth in her and watch her kind of come into her own that way.

>> I feel like I've widened my perspective so much being here.

I've seen so much-- I've seen too much, almost-- to go back to how I was talking and living and acting, and if you'd see me in the street, I don't think you'd recognize me.

>> So what if I asked you to graph this thing that's changing over time?

>> Well, zero is there so it would go away from it, so it wouldn't be negative.

>> Start negative, zero, positive, zero, negative... >> I caught up and I got good midterm grades.

I'm excited about that and I'm proud.

>> Blessed be God, blessed be our life together.

Blessed be our food this night and our fellowship.

We ask these things in God's name.

Amen.

(kids talking happily) >> Have a great time tonight at the dance.

You look amazing.

(music playing) >> After my freshman year, my sophomore year, now this is a good year.

You're kind of just floating.

(music continues) I just need to keep looking ahead and just keep going, keep moving a step at a time.

>> NARRATOR: But just as Omarina was getting on track at Brooks, she received a disturbing call.

>> It was a Tuesday morning.

I feel like you know when something's wrong.

I couldn't ignore the feeling that I had in my stomach.

>> Why are we so powerless to save the people we love?

>> NARRATOR: There was news of her twin brother, Omarlin.

>> I immediately thought, "Is he dead?

Just tell me if he's dead."

>> I want to tell you why I did it.

>> NARRATOR: Omarlin had been shot.

Police said the shooter fled the scene.

Her brother survived and was recovering at home.

>> I was scared and sad and disappointed and worried, but I can't show that to him.

I feel like... And it is hard sometimes, but I can't show him that I'm scared.

I can't show him that I'm sad or I'm disappointed, because he doesn't need that.

He needs someone there to be strong for him.

>> NARRATOR: That someone most often has to be Omarina herself, because their mother is frequently not at home.

>> There was no question that she was going to go down and be with her family.

Omarina really struggles with the opportunities she has at Brooks and kind of this path that's been laid out for her.

You really saw the disparities in the worlds that she balances in that moment where she was so concerned about his safety and his family and making sure someone was going to be there for him because her mother was out of town.

And she knows that her brother's kind of stuck at home in this world that's full of vices and difficulty.

I think that with that guilt comes feeling more responsible and feeling like she wants to do everything she can to help.

>> NARRATOR: So Omarina makes regular trips home to the Bronx, juggling the competing demands of her schoolwork and her sense of responsibility to her brother.

>> Hey!

>> (laughing) >> Where were you?

I try very hard not to ever cry in front of him.

I hope he does realize that I do care and that's why I do the things I do and that's why I always nag him.

Did you get transferred or are you still in the process?

What's going to happen with that?

>> It's not going to take long, right?

>> When it first started was seventh grade, when his education got hurt because he began, you know, getting involved with something he did get involved.

It made me uncertain and it made me worry because I know where this is headed.

I mean, I don't think...

I think everyone knows where this is headed, and people can be ignorant to it but I know where this is headed, and what he needs is intervention.

>> NARRATOR: Omarlin is reluctant to talk about what's going on in his life, or about the bullet that could have ended it.

>> NARRATOR: So while Omarina is finishing her sophomore year at Brooks, Omarlin, who is 16 years old, is still in the ninth grade.

At the time of filming, he had only shown up for school five times all year.

>> We actually know that kids are resilient, and so it still makes sense to have strong recovery efforts in high school and strong high school reform efforts, and you'll still be able to turn kids around, put them back on track.

But it gets much harder.

>> NARRATOR: In late February 2014, Omarlin was charged with carrying a knife.

Two weeks later, he was charged with possession of ecstasy and marijuana.

The cases are pending.

>> I handle stress in different ways.

When I get to Brooks, I use it as almost my getaway.

I can't just think and think and think and think about all the things that are going wrong.

I just think about the things that might be going right, you know?

>> Go to pbs.org/frontline for more on the debate over community schools.

>> It's about bringing schools back to our community.

>> How segregated are American schools today?

Find out more.

And watch our 2012 film on "The Middle School Moment."

>> What if you could change the future for kids on a fast track to dropping out of school?

>> Then connect to the Frontline community, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and pbs.org/frontline.

For more on this and other Frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

Frontline's "Separate and Unequal" is available on DVD.

To order, visit shopPBS.org, or call 1-800-play-PBS.

Frontline is also available for download on iTunes.

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FRONTLINE | Separate and Unequal | Season 2014 | Episode 12 | PBS

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FRONTLINE examines what's behind the growing racial divide in American schools.

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Brené Brown: Hi everyone, I'm Brené Brown, and this is Unlocking Us. Today, I'm talking with Professor Ibram Kendi. He's a number one New York Times best-selling author and the Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. He's also an ideas columnist at The Atlantic and a correspondent with CBS News. He is the author of four books, including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He has another book called, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, which he co-authored with Jason Reynolds, and it's a remix of the Stamped from the Beginning book that is meant for YA, teen readers - an incredible, incredible book. And he's got a new book coming out called Antiracist Baby, which is a board book that will be published this month in June. Completely evidence that it's never too early to start talking about anti-racism.

BB: He's also the author of How to Be an Antiracist, and that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about all those books, but we're going to really focus on How to Be an Antiracist, which is a groundbreaking approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society and in ourselves. It's an incredible conversation. I welcome you to the table to sit with us, talk, think, feel, ask, question, and lean in really, really far to what we need to learn about ourselves and the world. I want to start this conversation with a quote from Professor Kendi: "By not running from books that pain us, we can allow them to transform us. I ran from antiracist books most of my life, but now I can't stop running after them, scrutinizing myself and my society, and in the process changing both." Let's jump in.

BB: Alright, first let me say that I am incredibly grateful for you joining us on Unlocking Us, thank you for that.

Ibram X. Kendi: Of course, I'm so happy to be on.

BB: I always start these podcasts with not the perfunctory, but the honest, "How are you?" How are you doing right now?

IK: I'm okay. This is quite the time in American history, and as someone who studies anti-Black racism, I'm simultaneously enraged to see the deathly effects of that racism, but simultaneously energized to see all of the people resisting that racism.

BB: How are you holding up with the COVID-19 pandemic on top of all of this, as the underscore to all of this?

IK: I think that that has been difficult for me, partly because my colleagues and I, we partnered with the COVID Tracking Project to build this COVID racial data tracker. And so we're... It's like the premier tracker of racial data on COVID. And so I'm seeing the data coming in and the disparities all over the country, and so that's been difficult. And then simultaneously, my wife, Sadiqa, her family is... Her hometown is Albany, Georgia, and Albany, Georgia and that general area of Southwest Georgia has one of the worst outbreaks in the country. And simultaneously, it's a trauma desert, it doesn't have a tremendous amount of high-quality healthcare, in contrast to New York City, which also of course has been a major outbreak. And so, seeing and hearing those stories firsthand of people suffering, obviously, it's been difficult. And this is a primarily Black area.

BB: I want to get into... I want to talk a lot about How to Be an Antiracist, your book that I think is life changing. I want to talk about your new book that's coming out in a couple of weeks. Tell us the title of that new book.

IK: Antiracist Baby. It's a board book.

BB: I can't wait. I want to start because when we talk about the pandemic, when we talk about what's happening right now in the world with a rebellion, the protest, you wrote an article that went up on The Atlantic this morning.

IK: Yes.

BB: It's called "The American Nightmare: To be Black and Conscious of Anti-Black Racism is to Stare Into The Mirror of Your Own Extinction." I want to... Can I read a piece of this to you and ask you about it?

IK: Sure, yeah.

BB: Would you rather read it or would you... Can I read it to you?

IK: Yeah, you can read it. That's fine, yeah.

BB: Okay. You're using as an epigraph, a quote from Malcom X from 1964, "We don't see any American dream. We've experienced only the American nightmare." And then you write, "A nightmare is essentially a horror story of danger, but it is not wholly a horror story. Black people experience joy, love, peace, safety. But as in any horror story, those unforgettable moments of toil, terror, and trauma have made danger essential to the Black experience in racist America. What one Black American experiences, many Black Americans experience. Black Americans are constantly stepping into the toil and terror and trauma of other Black Americans. Black Americans are constantly stepping into the souls of the dead because they know that could have been them, they are them. Because they know it is dangerous to be Black in America because racist Americans see Blacks as dangerous. To be Black and conscious of anti-Black racism is to stare into the mirror of your own extinction."

BB: This is not just about the police brutality; this is not just about Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd; this is about the tens of thousands of Black victims of Covid.

IK: Yeah.

BB: Talk to me about this article. What do we need to understand?

IK: Well, I think first and foremost, the article revolves around a very, very prominent book that was written in 1896 by Frederick Hoffman, who, basically it was a book of statistical tables and racial data that showed not only racial disparities in crime rates, but also racial disparities in infection rates and racial disparities in mortality, or I should say death rates, and so he took this massive amount of racial data to proclaim that Black people were not subjected to racist policies. That wasn't the cause of Black disease, of Black death, and even Black people being disproportionately arrested and incarcerated. He made the case that this data shows that Black people are headed towards gradual extinction, and it's their fault. They are by nature or behavior, a dangerous, diseased, dying people, and to recognize anything else is to not recognize the facts. And so this idea, normalizing Black pain and suffering and death has only continued to this day, and so essentially when you normalize, when you just believe that Black people should be disproportionally dying of police violence or even COVID-19, you're thereby not going to challenge, let alone look for the policies that are actually behind this disproportionate Black death.

IK: And so then those who are experiencing those policies that are then leading to that trauma and terror, and even toil, they're going to be experiencing the American nightmare. And the reason why I use the term the American nightmare is because Black people are constantly told that America is this land of equal opportunity, that police officers protect and serve, that we too have access to the American dream. And obviously, based on the experiences of Black people, we've really, as Malcolm said, 50 years ago, experienced the American nightmare.

BB: When you talk about the Hoffman book, it's such a devastating reminder to me, because I see this a lot right now of how statistics, academics, science can be dehumanizing tools as much as kind of the language that we use.

IK: Yeah, without question. And let me give an example. So when we first were able to start getting states in early April to release racial data, and then we saw these racial disparities. We saw that Black people were disproportionately being infected and even dying, of COVID. The first response of people to that data, of many people to that data, was to say Black people are not taking the virus seriously, Black people are not socially distancing, there's something wrong with Black people, and then we were able to disprove that. Basically survey data in mid-March had already proven that actually Black people were taking the virus more seriously than white people. So then it's zeroed in to, well, it must be the result of Black pre-existing conditions.

IK: And then those pre-existing conditions are caused by Black people making disproportionately bad or unhealthy behaviors. So it just always, essentially, you take these racial disparities, and we've been arguing over their existence, even before Frederick Hoffman. Is it because there's something wrong with Black people, or is there racist policy? And those who believe we live in a nation that's post-racial, that there's equal opportunity, they're not going to ever see the racist policies that are even in many cases, hard to see, instead they're just going to blame Black people.

BB: It's almost, and I don't think it's almost, it is the confirmation bias of racist beliefs.

IK: It is, yeah, it is. And that's what's striking about Frederick Hoffman, because he opens his book arguing that, "I am free of bias. I am free of prejudice or sentimentally."

BB: Which should be our first flag, right?

[chuckle]

IK: Exactly, right. And then, ends the book stating that the gradual extinction of Black people is only a matter of time, and it's based on the data. And to give another example, you have many people arguing that police violence, disproportionate police violence is the result of Black people being disproportionately violent, and Black people are disproportionately violent, they say, because, well, just look at the violent crime data. There's this widespread belief that Black neighborhoods are more dangerous because of violent crime data, the same violent crime data that Frederick Hoffman in this book in 1896 really popularized. But what Americans don't realize, and this is what I've been trying to get people to see, is that there's no relationship between the violent crime in those neighborhoods and the Blackness of the people.

IK: In other words, people believe that the reason why those neighborhoods are violent is because there are Black people there, and that's why when they see Black neighborhoods, they assume that those neighborhoods are violent because the Black people and their culture and their behavior and even their genetics are predisposed to violence. But if that was the case, then all Black neighborhoods would have the same levels of violent crime. In other words, higher income...

BB: Because that would be the... Yeah, that would be the consistent variable.

IK: Precisely. And so, higher income Black neighborhoods would have the same levels of violent crime as extremely impoverished Black neighborhoods. That is not the case. And it's not the case in white America, it's not the case in Asian America, Native America, Latinx America. In every America, if we want to split up America racially, you have higher levels of poverty, long-term unemployment, you're going to have higher levels of violent crime, whether you're talking about a white community or neighborhood with higher levels of violent crime or Latinx or Black. So we know statistically that actually what is the consistent variable is poverty and unemployment. But people still want to call these dangerous Black neighborhoods as opposed to dangerous unemployed neighborhoods.

BB: One of the things that I find so powerful about your work, there are many things, but one of the things I find so powerful is your ability to unpack things, lay them out, and the steps always lead back to policy. It always leads back to systemic policy.

IK: And I think that's one of the things I'm trying to get people to realize, and especially, I think one of the things that happens with our discussions on race is we personalize groups, meaning we make groups into individuals, and, even though every group is made up of individuals, we say, "Oh well, this group is disproportionately obese, so therefore, why can't this group "diet or exercise more" in the way I used to do when I weighed a little bit more. But that's actually... We can't think of groups as individuals, when we think of... Especially we can't think of disparities as the result of the personal choices of the individuals in groups, because I think that's what happens, that's how we have been misled into believing, but when we actually... All of the data points to and all of the analysis points to, is that when you have two groups, there's going to be all different types of behaviors in both groups, whether that...

BB: Complete variance, right?

IK: Precisely. So you take white people and Black people, you have white people who eat unhealthy, you have white people who are vegans, you have Black people who eat in an unhealthy manner, and then you have Black people like me who are vegans. And so... And then you have vegans who are white, who don't really eat vegetables. Right? And so it's so much variable, and so we emphasize the negativities that we see among those individuals who are Black, and then ignore the negativities among the individuals who are white. And so we say, "Oh, those Black folk and their soul food, that's why they're unhealthy," as if you don't have white people who gathered this weekend and had hamburgers and hot dogs only on their barbeque menu. So I think that it's critically important for us when we think of groups and group inequality, to recognize that what changes communities, what changes groups, it's not their individual behaviors, it's policy change.

BB: I want to slow down here and go into slow motion for a moment, because, what you're saying is so profoundly important at the crux of, I think, of your entire book. And for me as a researcher, it's... We take groups and we take stereotypes and characteristics of groups, and what it seems to me that we do, and I think you write about this, but I want to check in with you to make sure I'm understanding it correctly because this is what I see. We see the most kind of negative, socially agreed upon, not good characteristics of groups of color, and we assign it to the entire group. Then we take the best characteristics of one or two people in the white folk group and assign it to that entire group. That's true, right? You see that...

IK: Exactly. So that's what I talk about how we generalize the individual negativities of people of color while we individualize the individual negativities of white people.

BB: And you know what keeps coming back to me, and I'm going to date myself with this because this was a huge raging issue as I was in school and then graduate work: the bell curve is such an example of the manipulation of statistical data to confirm a racist hypothesis. Okay. Yeah, I just... You know what? We do that. We do that. I can think of times when I do that, maybe not about race, but I do do that with... I'll tell you where I do it. I do it with political identity. I take the best part of the people I see in my group and assign it to everyone in my group. And the worst part, and it's so self-protective and self-destructive at the same time, isn't it?

IK: It is. It is. And I know How to Be an Antiracist, in particular, I remember giving a talk about this book, I believe I was in Gainesville, Florida, and this woman who was obviously a Republican or a conservative, got up during the Q&A and basically challenged me, basically by saying, "You're just another liberal who is just criticizing conservatives completely and never being able to look back on the problems of things that liberals do." And I was like, "Did you read the book?" [laughter] Because obviously, you didn't read the book, because the book was just as critical of people who identify as liberals or Democrats as people who identify as conservatives and Republicans.

BB: I want to read something from the book, early-on pages. Is it weird when I read to you? Is it okay?

IK: It's fine, yeah.

BB: Okay. "The good news is that racist and antiracist are not fixed identities. We can be a racist one minute and be an antiracist the next. What we say about race, what we do about race in each moment determines what, not who, we are." And you write, "I used to be racist most of the time. I am changing. I am no longer identifying with racists by claiming to be not racist. I am no longer speaking through the mask of racial neutrality. I am no longer manipulated by racist ideas to see racial groups as problems. I no longer believe a Black person cannot be racist, I am no longer policing my every action around an imagined white or Black judge trying to convince white people of my equal humanity, trying to convince Black people, I am representing the race well." This book is incredibly vulnerable in terms of you sharing your own experiences. Why was that important to you as you were writing this?

IK: So, I remember when I was thinking about this book and I was sort of thinking about the pulse of the book, even the heartbeat of the book. I recognize that the heartbeat, historically, of racism has been denial, has been to deny that one's ideas are racist, one's policies are racist, and certainly that one's self and one's nation is racist, and so then I was like, "Okay, by contrast, the heartbeat of antiracism is confession, is admission, is acknowledgement, is the willingness to be vulnerable, is the willingness to identify the times in which we are being racist, is to be willing to diagnose ourselves and our country, and our ideas, and our policies." And the reason why that's the heartbeat is because, like with anything else, the first step is acknowledging the problem. We can't even begin the process of changing ourselves, of acting in an antiracist fashion, if we're not even willing to admit the times in which we're being racist. And so I realize that essentially to be antiracist is to admit when we're being racist. And so I realize that in order to really give voice to that, in order to really model that for people I had to do that to myself and for myself.

BB: And you do it, and you do it throughout the book and you move forward a bunch and you slide back, and you share that with us. To me, that is the heart of the book, that there is such a deep humanity in this book. Was that intentional on your part? Did you write it from a perspective of, "This is what it means to be in the human struggle?"

IK: I think so. And I mean, I think that, to be honest, the first few chapters were a huge struggle for me to write, precisely because of how vulnerable I had to be and how many... I had to basically admit and chronicle some of the most shameful moments of my life, especially as someone who was raised in a home to value and love Black people, to be able to have to write about those times in which I did not value or love Black people, let alone other groups, was very, very difficult. And so it really wasn't... And so I think I struggled and it actually... I think the first few chapters, it took me almost like a year to write, and it really wasn't until as I write about in the end of the book that I was diagnosed with cancer, that I just wondered whether indeed I would even live to see the book come out, and I think because of that, in a way freed me to be vulnerable and to be completely sort of open and naked in writing the book.

BB: Yeah, there's just courage on every page. I mean, really, and I have to say you don't see that very often in books. You don't see that very often in the world, so thank you for that. I think the central message is that the opposite of racist isn't not racist, The true opposite of racist is antiracist. Can you break that down for us and help us understand how the opposite of racist is not, not race... Not racist is not the opposite of racist.

IK: Sure, so I think... Let me say it in this way. So when you think of... So I define a racist as someone who is expressing racist ideas or supporting racist policies with their action or inaction, I know we're not supposed to use terms in the definition, but I think what's critical about understanding what it means to be racist is understanding what a racist idea is, and what a racist policy is. And once you understand what a racist idea and racist policy is, you begin to realize that there's a fundamental contrast to that, and that contrast is not some sort of neutrality. And so if a racist idea is any idea that suggests a racial group is superior or inferior to another racial group... In other words, a racist idea connotes racial hierarchy, then what's the opposite of that? The opposite of that is ideas that connote racial equality, that challenges directly that idea of racial hierarchy and says, "No. All the racial groups are equals."

IK: And there's no in between racial hierarchy and racial equality. Either all the racial groups are equals, or certain racial groups are better or worse than others. And so there's no not racist idea, there's only a racist idea and an antiracist idea. And the same thing with policy. If a racist policy is leading to racial inequity, then an antiracist policy is leading to racial equity. There's no in between inequity or equity, and if racist policies lead to injustice, then by contrast, antiracist policies lead to justice. There's no in between injustice or justice. And so then when you take a person, you have people who are either expressing racist or antiracist ideas. So in any given moment, they're either being racist or antiracist, there's no not racist sort of category.

IK: And then I should also add very quickly that when people typically say, "I am not racist," it is in response to someone challenging something that they just did or said that indeed probably was racist. So again, I mentioned how the heartbeat, or in order to be antiracist, we have to be willing to admit the times in which we're being racist. By contrast, in order to be racist, we never admit the times in which we're being racist, and instead we say we're not racist.

BB: I have a couple of questions. So what do you say to the person who when you say we're either racist or antiracist to the person who says, "That's a false dichotomy. There can be neutrality between antiracist and race, there can be neutrality between injust and just, between inequality and equity or equality." I can't find what that neutrality is. But I would really love to know how you answer that because I get that a lot, especially when I quote you, but I can't think of a single example, because the systems are already in place. So if we were at net zero, how does that... I mean, it may be so but we're not, so what do you answer?

IK: Yeah so I state that are you... I would... So people have asked me asked that, and typically what I state say is, "Are you stating that because from a defensive posture?" In other words, you don't want to identify as racist, and you view those antiracists in some way that you don't want to sort of identify with. So this is fundamentally defensive so you can create a category for yourself. And typically, we know when people are creating categories for themselves because you can't define your category. And so are you creating this category for us, or are you creating this category for yourself? And if you're creating it for us, then define it for us, so we can understand it.

IK: What does it mean to be not racist? I know what it means to be racist. I know what it means to be antiracist. What does it mean to be not racist? And if you can't provide a very clear and consistent definition, then that shows me that you're fundamentally being defensive, and you're fundamentally seeking to create a category for yourself.

BB: That is so powerful, and starting with the defensive posturing that I think there are people that don't want to be in the racist category of course, because there's so much shame attached to that.

IK: Yeah.

BB: And they don't want to be in the antiracist category because there's so much frickin work attached to that.

IK: Yes.

BB: Do you know what I mean?

IK: Yes.

BB: Like antiracism work is, no joke, exhausting and vigilant, and there's shame in it too because it's... So it's interesting because - can we dig into something that is kind of at the intersection of your work and my work to help me figure out something?

IK: Sure.

BB: You don't seem to be... And I've only read this book and a couple of articles that you've written or maybe three or four articles from The Atlantic, but I will be getting the baby board book for sure. And it'll become my new go-to, like, I'm looking at Barrett, who's in here with me. She's like, "This will be the new. Every baby we know will be getting this book." You don't seem to be a proponent of shame as a social justice tool.

IK: No.

BB: So, let me ask you this question because I think this goes to the creating categories out of defensiveness. One of the things that I've seen and I see it a lot, I see it a lot in my social feeds, I see it a lot when I have really difficult Q&As when I'm on book tours. Let's say you and I are talking, and I share a racist idea, or I make a racist statement, and you hold me accountable for that. Right? Which is fair. You question and we dig in. But you say... I am going to feel shame about that, for most, I think most, maybe not all, but most white, I hope, most white Americans, or maybe Americans in general will feel shame about being held accountable for racist thinking or thoughts or speaking, then I go into shame. But what I'm struggling helping people understand and maybe you can share your thoughts on it with us is being held accountable for racism and experiencing shame around that, is not the same as being shamed about racism.

IK: Mm-hmm, yeah.

BB: Does that makes sense to you at all? Or am I off? I don't know.

IK: No, I think it makes sense. And I think that... Well, two things I'm trying to think of what to say first because I feel like I'll forget the other. Do you ever feel that way?

BB: All the time.

IK: So I think one thing is that... So if we talk about racist ideas, to grow up in America is to grow up, and for racist ideas to constantly be rained on your head and you have no umbrella. And you don't even know that you're wet with those racist ideas, because the racist ideas themselves cause you to imagine that you're dry.

BB: Right.

IK: And then someone comes along and says, "You know what, you're wet, and these ideas are still raining on your head. Here's an umbrella." You can be like, "Thank you, I didn't even realize I was drenched."

BB: Yeah, yeah.

IK: And then with all these ideas, and then the question, this is why I don't think people should feel ashamed, is there were other people and very powerful people in a history that was constantly raining those ideas on your head, and so what that means is, for instance if you're a white American, who has racist ideas, and then you, let's say, perpetuated those ideas by, let's say, not hiring a Black person because you thought they were lazy. You were simultaneously a victim and a victimizer. And so I think it's critical for people to recognize that literally, and as I talk about in How to Be an Antiracist, there's a specific reason why you had so many powerful Americans trying to convince white Americans that Black people were inferior; it was out of their own self interest.

BB: Yeah.

IK: And so then, white Americans and other Americans were tricked into believing that Black people should be enslaved in 1855, and then meanwhile poor whites, whose poverty was directly the result of the riches of white slaveholders were like, "Yeah, it should be this way." And so then those people were able to get richer and richer, and so me coming to that poor white person who believes Black people should be enslaved and then who have even sort of worked on slave patrols and brutalized Black people trying to run away, I'm basically coming to them and saying, "Here is the way you were a victimizer and here is the way you were a victim." And it's critically important, I think, for people to understand, people have been tricked, they've been manipulated, they've been hoodwinked, and that's why I think, that's what I'd want people to realize.

BB: Yeah, thank you for the umbrella. I didn't know I was wet. I think that might be where we lose people.

IK: Yeah.

BB: Wow. Do you ever... I think about this, I think my background is in social work, so I have my master's in social work and PhD in social work, and my bachelor's too, and so I've probably taken 20 classes on the nature of oppression. I guess the thing that always strikes me about oppression as a construct, and I know I'm going to personify it, and I know this is probably not right, but I would love your thoughts on it because I've tried to figure it out for so many years is, God, it's so hard to fight because it has an answer for everything, like it is...

IK: Yeah, yeah.

BB: Do you know what I mean?

IK: Mm-hmm.

BB: Like, it's such a formidable foe. It's like every time, like when you said to me, I got goosebumps when you said, "It's raining on you. But part of what it's raining on you is the message that you're dry."

IK: Mm-hmm.

BB: It is such a formidable foe, isn't it?

IK: It is, and that I think that it's critically important. What I'm trying to do is bring people back into reality, right? So they can realize that it's being rained on them, that that rain is coming down on their head, that they're slipping and falling and harming people in ways that they don't even realize. And when you step that back into reality, then you can actually recognize what's actually happening to you and what you're doing to other people. And then you can also begin to see how and why you have people protesting all over this country and why people are enraged and why that resistance is going to continue. Literally racist ideas, literally separate people from reality, and it prevents people, even too, from helping themselves.

IK: And so I talked a lot in my book about the ways in which even you have Black elites who believe ideas about the Black poor and who sort of reproduce racist ideas about the Black poor, not realizing that racist policies against them are being justified through ideas about the Black poor, or you have white Americans who are believing in racist ideas that these people of color will just use and abuse and take advantage of so-called social entitlement programs like Medicare for All, or increasing Social Security funding, or basic income, or other... Or paid leave, things that other countries have. And so therefore, I don't want none of that. And then it results in them not having the social safety net when they fall, their friends not having it, their family not having it, and then when they fall and become hurt, then they're told it's immigrants' fault. And so it's this constant sort of people being hurt...

BB: God.

IK: And then they believing that it's these other people who are the source of their pain, as opposed to the people who they actually support, who are the source of their pain.

BB: I'm a terrible podcast host, because I'm sitting here with my hands over my mouth, and that's not... I can't do that, but that's my response to this. I read an article, I think it was during the 2016 election, all I can remember is an MD-PhD, public health person, and I think the name of the article is: "Racism is Killing White People." And it's because they were voting against the very things, the services, and the safety nets that they themselves will need just because of the racist rhetoric that they attached to it.

IK: Exactly.

BB: It's...

IK: Yeah, Jonathan Metzl and that's based on his book Dying of Whiteness. And he talked about...

BB: Is that the who that... Is he an MD? Is that the one I'm talking about?

IK: MD-PhD, yes, yeah.

BB: My husband's a pediatrician, I think I read it in, there was an excerpt of something in American Pediatrics or something. So tell us who that was and what that book was, and we'll put it on our show notes.

IK: So yeah, it's Jonathan Metzl, who's a MD-PhD, I believe at Vanderbilt, and his book was entitled Dying of Whiteness, and he looks at the white resistance to the extension of ObamaCare or even the extension of Medicaid in particular states and how that not only harmed, obviously people of color disproportionately, but even white people, and how the resistance to creating more insurance and affordable healthcare has harmed white people, let alone people of color, or even probably the most striking aspect of that book was so he not only looked at healthcare, but even the massive debate currently over gun control.

BB: Gun control.

IK: And gun safety and gun rights, and how first and foremost, you've had white men who have been advocating for the reduction or elimination of gun safety laws so that they can arm themselves, so that they can protect their families against Muslim terrorists and Black criminals and LatinX invaders as they call them. And what's fascinating is those very states where they've been able to successfully eliminate these gun safety policies, it's led to a massive surge in people being killed, white men being killed by hand gun via suicide, so the very people, white men who've been pushing for the reduction in gun safety laws have then led to them, given them greater ability to accumulate guns, and they've used those guns to kill themselves, so literally, people are dying of whiteness.

BB: Can I just ask you just like a no bullshit question here?

IK: Mm-hmm.

BB: Why does that make so much sense to some of us and no sense, it seems, to other people? Why do some of us see the through line and some of us don't see the through line? Do you understand what I'm asking? It's a weird question.

IK: Yeah, yeah. I think first and foremost, because we're living in different sort of realities, and so, for many of these white men who are advocating, who are proud card-carrying members of the NRA, who are advocating for the accumulation of weapons by white men, they believe... I should say they've been made to believe that the cause of their own personal pain, the reasons why they're struggling in society or they do don't have more than they already have, is because of these immigrants and these people of color. They also generalize, when there's a Black person who commits murder, or a LatinX immigrant or a terrorist who commits murder, in their mind, those are the central sort of problems that are harming America and are threatening them. And so they're in tremendous amounts of fear, because they're constantly told by their politicians, by the people they listen to, that these are the people you should fear, and then they're told, "Your rights are being taken away. White men are being chastised and criticized, and demeaned by women, by people of color, by everybody, and so we are your defenders and you need to defend yourself through these weapons."

IK: And, but then what's happening is they're actually getting these weapons and killing themselves, and then all of those individual suicides are individualized, so there's not this collective national outcry about the incredible level of white men who are committing suicide, because, again, if something bad happens to white people, it's individualized.

BB: I've just been thinking a lot about your book around the How to Be an Antiracist book, and I've been thinking about how there is a very short distance in my mind between the dehumanizing dog whistle language from this administration to calling the cops on a bird watcher, to George Floyd. And it's my training, again, I think in social work systems theory, that these things lie on a continuum, but that that walk is very short between these things. Do you agree with that or disagree with that?

IK: Oh yeah, I agree. I mean, I actually tweeted out last week after we heard about what happened to George Floyd, that we should be seeing that, I think I said something to the... Well, let me just say the idea, and that is, when it comes to police violence, oftentimes the beginning of police violence is someone, and in this case, a white woman calling the police saying, "A Black male is threatening my life. I need your help, come help me," when indeed she is actually the person who's threatening the other person, but anyway, she calls up the police, and then the police come, imagining that there's this so-called Black super predator who's preying on this innocent white woman, and that it is their job principally to protect them, and so, then they come imagining the need for force. And then Christian Cooper ends up as George Floyd in Minneapolis.

BB: In a split second.

IK: In which an unarmed person is now dead. And so, there's a very straight line from Central Park to Minneapolis, and we understand because that was essentially the lynching era, but that lynching era has continued.

BB: And I think I would back the line up, because I think for me, a big part of my studies was dehumanization and the process, and the very invisible process of dehumanizing, which every genocide in recorded history starts with dehumanizing and starts with language. So when we hear things like, when we talk about immigrants and the White House uses words like infestation, and when we use words like... I don't even think I've ever heard white people referred to as thugs in my life. It's people have a very hard time understanding that once we move people outside of what we believe is humanity, that it's possible to do anything to them.

IK: It is. And I think that is the reason why when you have those racist ideas that cause you to demonize people of color, and then that is combined with racist policies that are over-policing their neighborhoods, or allowing police officers who kill them to not be prosecuted, or to get off, it only continues this cycle that not only do they not matter to me, they don't even matter to the state.

BB: Right. You wrote something, I think this was a quote from the New York Times, and I feel like I could talk to you for... I hope you come back again, and we can talk more about all the great policy change that's happening. That's what I'm hoping.

IK: That's what I'm hoping, too.

BB: But I want to read this quote because and it says, "By not running from the books that pain us, we can allow them to transform us." This is a quote from you. "I ran from antiracist books most of my life. But now I can't stop running after them, scrutinizing myself and my society, and in the process changing both."

IK: That's what we need to be doing. I think many of us have learned, even from your work, we have to be constantly growing. We cannot harden ourselves, and certainly our children into, "They're stupid or we're stupid." We have to say, "You know what, that was not a smart thing that I did or said. That was a racist act. But I am not essentially a racist." No one is. Everyone has the capacity to change, everyone has the capacity to be antiracist. Everyone has the capacity to grow. And if we're not growing as human beings, then what are we? What's distinguishing humans from other beings? It's that capacity for self-awareness and growth.

BB: That's right, meaning making. I always go back to that quote from Shawshank Redemption, "Get busy living or get busy dying." And I think if you're not learning and growing, which can be painful, stretch marks, bruises, you're dying in a way. Okay, Ibram, walk me through, because I really want to get one of your books for my soon to be 15-year-old son, and so tell me about the sequence of Stamped from the Beginning. Is there a YA version?

IK: Yes.

BB: So how does it work?

IK: So when I wrote Stamped from the Beginning, which again, chronicled this history of racist ideas, literally from their origins to the present, so upwards of 600 years of history, people would come up to me and say, "You know what, I wish I would have learned this in middle school, in high school. I didn't understand and know this history." And so, people kept telling me that, "You know what, this book needs to be before every middle schooler and high schooler." And so we decided that, "Let's create one." And Stamped from the Beginning is upwards of 500 pages, and so we decided we needed a specific book. And so I asked Jason Reynolds, who's, he's probably one of the more gifted YA novelists, who historically has written on race and racism, and he has his own voice and his own style. And I asked him a couple of times, he said no a couple of times, but eventually he agreed, and so he took Stamped from the Beginning, and completely rewrote it for young people in their voice, in his patented lyricism. And yeah, they've fallen in love with it. It actually debuted number one New York Times, so yeah, people are really responding to it well.

BB: You know what I love, is it's never too early to talk to our kids about this. And now you've given us the gifts of a board book, a YA book, and then books for adults.

IK: And that's, I want, especially in this moment, when there are a lot of people who want tools for not only understanding racism themselves, but even teaching and instructing their kids, and I'm hoping also that people realize that they should be having these discussions with their children. Their children are not color blind. The data shows that children as early as six months recognize race, and children as early as two to three years old have begun to consume racist ideas. And if you're not teaching those children antiracist ideas, if you're not challenging those racist ideas, and they're only going to grow up and then one day say something, you're going to feel completely embarrassed. Because like with anything else, people have to be taught to be antiracist, just as they're taught, indirectly, by so many things they see and experience and hear, to be racist.

BB: And I think it's been also my experience that, when you don't... The biggest mistake a lot of people I see making, is we don't talk about race, but we've raised nice and kind kids, so we assume that that's going to translate to something, and it translates to nothing, except the messaging that it's scary and not okay to talk about race.

IK: Exactly. Yeah, if the modeling... Can you imagine, there are adults, and many adults who struggle to talk about race and racism, and... But could you imagine if those adults were talking about these issues as early as 2 or 3, or 1, or as soon as you can speak, then... And I think, part of this also, is, as I'm learning on thinking through how to parent my child, of course, we've learned from you, and one of the things we're trying to model for her, is how to have difficult, uncomfortable conversations and how necessary those conversations are for her having a healthy, happy, and productive and impactful sort of life. And so this talking about race and racism is one type of difficult conversation we need to teach her how to have.

BB: Yeah, and, God, I just don't think there's a bigger gift that we... On top of knowing that you're loved and worthy of love and belonging, I don't know if there's a greater gift that we can give our kids, than the ability to lean into difficult conversation and to be vulnerable. Yeah. Okay, I have this last 10 rapid fire, and it's really important, it's more lighthearted, but it's about getting to know you as a person, and I think, sometimes, one of the hardest things about being an activist is not being seen as a person and can be sometimes dehumanizing in its own way. So if you would allow me, I'd love to ask you these 10 questions.

IK: Sure. Yeah. Let's do it.

BB: Okay, ready? Number one's fill in the blank. Vulnerability is?

IK: Courageous.

BB: Number two, you're called to do something brave, but your fear is real and it's stuck right in your throat. What's the first thing you do?

IK: Think about what the right thing to do is, and focus on that, rather than my fear.

BB: What is something that people often get wrong about you?

IK: That I'm very, very serious and angry all the time.

[chuckle]

BB: Okay. What's the last show that you binged and loved?

IK: That we binged, let's see. Probably... Oh, God, what's the show that was the... Probably the lead show on HBO, that just ended. I'm forgetting the name of it.

BB: Game of Thrones?

IK: Game of Thrones, yes.

BB: Okay, got it.

IK: Game of Thrones. So, literally... So, my wife and I, we hadn't seen it at all, any of the episodes, and we just binge-watched it late last year, and we both really liked it, except the ending, of course, but...

BB: Now, that's a binge, that's a hella binge right there, if you watched it all. Okay, a film that you really love?

IK: So I think, one of the films that I really love, particularly in context to our conversation, is After Earth, which was a movie with Will Smith and his son, in which they are sort of lost on this mysterious sort of planet, and he's hurt, and they have to figure out a way to elude people, or I should say beings and beasts that are trying to kill them. And Will is seeking to really get his son, and speak through his son, to get his son to essentially get them both to safety because he's hurt. And I remember at one point, he's trying to encourage him to face this dangerous, or horrible sort of villain beast that sort of makes up the movie, and he says something to the effect that, "Fear is not real. Danger is real, but fear is a choice," and he obviously wanted him to make a different choice.

BB: God, what a quote.

IK: Yeah.

BB: Okay, a concert that you'll never forget.

IK: Probably... So I... One of my favorite groups in the '90s, when I was growing up, was Jagged Edge, this R&B group, and so I was able to not only see them in concert, but even meet them when I was a freshman... Oh, not a freshman, when I was at FAMU, where I did my undergrad in Tallahassee, Florida.

BB: Favorite meal.

IK: So I'd say my favorite food now is probably avocado, and it's fascinating because I only really started eating avocado probably in the last five years, and one day... And I'm the type of person, if it doesn't look good to me, then I'm not going to want to eat it, and so, since it was green, I'm like, how could... It just looks weird. But then one day I tried it, and I haven't looked back since.

BB: The rest is history, avocado history. Okay, what's on your nightstand right now?

IK: Where... Oh.

BB: He's literally looking at it.

IK: Yeah. What the Eyes Don't See.

BB: Okay.

IK: Which is "A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American city," by Mona Hanna-Attisha, which essentially is the story of the Flint water crisis, and how this pediatrician was very critical in not only sort of breaking the problem or demonstrating the problem, but even seeking to lead its recovery.

BB: Okay, a snapshot of an ordinary moment in your life that brings you real joy.

IK: Ordinary moment, is my 4-year-old daughter, I'm home after being somewhere, and she just jumps into a massive sprint, she comes and say hello and hugs me around my legs. That always brings me joy.

BB: Yeah. Last one. What's one thing that you're deeply grateful for right now?

IK: I think I'm deeply grateful for being surrounded by people, who sort of practice love with me, and who show their love as I seek to show my love to them, and so people... I believe people choose to love, and I'm sort of deeply grateful that people have chosen to love me.

BB: Well, your work is life-affirming and life-changing. Professor Ibram Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist. We just have a couple of short weeks to wait for Antiracist Baby, the board book, to come out. I'll make sure that we profile that on all of our channels, and we'll put it up on brenebrown.com. I think danger is real, to go back to your quote, I haven't seen that movie, but that quote's amazing. "Danger is real, but fear is a choice," and I am grateful for you for choosing courage. Thank you for making us braver.

IK: Well, thank you, and of course thank you for all your work, and glad we had a chance to sit down and talk about this.

BB: Me too, thank you.

(music)

Again, I want to thank Ibram Kendi for joining us on Unlocking Us. I'm committed to having him back on the program, if he'll join us, to talk even more, about antiracism and everything he has to teach us. If you want to follow Dr. Kendi, on Twitter, he's Dr. Ibram, @-D-R-I-B-R-A-M, Instagram, @-I-B-R-A-M-X-K. You can also go to our show page, on brenebrown.com, and you'll see all of his books, links to all of his books, and how to find him on social media, his website, and learn more about the work he does. I always sign these podcasts, I sign off on these podcasts by saying, "Stay awkward, brave and kind," and I would add to this one, in addition to awkward, brave and kind, I know we have to make choices, we have to use our voice in service, and for me, that rarely means giving voice to the voiceless, I think the voiceless have voices, and they've been screaming, for centuries. I think our work is to show up, be brave, give ears to the earless, and that's not easy, but right isn't easy, very often. Take good care of yourselves.

© 2020 Brené Brown Education and Research Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Brown, B. (Host). (2020, June 3). Brené with Ibram X. Kendi on How to Be an Antiracist. [Audio podcast episode]. In Unlocking Us with Brené Brown. Cadence13. https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-ibram-x-kendi-on-how-to-be-an-antiracist/

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Brené with Ibram X. Kendi on How to Be an Antiracist

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Ibram X. Kendi and I talk about racial disparities, policy, and equality, but we really focus on How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi's groundbreaking approach to understanding uprooting racism and inequality in our society and in ourselves.

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Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff: How we can make racism a solvable problem -- and improve policing

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When we define racism as behaviors instead of feelings, we can measure it -- and transform it from an impossible problem into a solvable one, says justice scientist Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff. In an actionable talk, he shares his work at the Center for Policing Equity, an organization that helps police departments diagnose and track racial gaps in policing in order to eliminate them.

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"It's not fair that now I have to say, 'It's OK to be Black and hyper and giddy,' that it's not a crime to smile," Zulayka McKinstry said of her daughter. Credit... Miranda Barnes for The New York Times

Discipline disparities between Black and white boys have driven reform efforts for years. But Black girls are arguably the most at-risk student group in the United States.

"It's not fair that now I have to say, 'It's OK to be Black and hyper and giddy,' that it's not a crime to smile," Zulayka McKinstry said of her daughter. Credit... Miranda Barnes for The New York Times

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Zulayka McKinstry's once silly, sociable daughter has stopped seeing friends, talking to siblings and trusting anyone - changes Ms. McKinstry dates to the day in January 2019 when her daughter's school principal decided that "hyper and giddy" were suspicious behaviors in a 12-year-old girl.

Ms. McKinstry's daughter was sent to the nurse's office and forced to undress so that she could be searched for contraband that did not exist.

"It's not fair that now I have to say, 'It's OK to be Black and hyper and giddy,' that it's not a crime to smile," Ms. McKinstry said. "And she doesn't believe me."

The Binghamton case is now the subject of what might be a groundbreaking federal lawsuit by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which has drawn on the disparate treatment and discipline rates of Black girls to pursue it.

The disproportionate discipline rates of Black boys have long dominated discussions about the harmful effects of punitive discipline policies, but recent high-profile cases have begun to reframe the debate around the plight of Black girls.

In Florida, Kaia Rolle was only 6 last year when police officers escorted her, hands bound behind her with zip ties, from her school in Orlando after employees there said she had a temper tantrum.

In Sacramento, the first "virtual suspension" to draw national attention was meted out to a 9-year-old Black girl who was kicked out of her Zoom classroom for reportedly sending too many messages. In Michigan, a teenager was sent to juvenile detention for not completing her online schoolwork.

Just this week, the Common Application for colleges and universities cited disproportionate discipline rates for Black girls in its decision to stop asking students to report whether they had been subject to disciplinary action.

Statistically, Black boys have led the country in suspensions, expulsions and school arrests, and the disparities between them and white boys have been a catalyst for national movements for change. But Black girls' discipline rates are not far behind those of Black boys; and in several categories, such as suspensions and law enforcement referrals, the disparities between Black and white girls eclipse those between Black and white boys.

A New York Times analysis of the most recent discipline data from the Education Department found that Black girls are over five times more likely than white girls to be suspended at least once from school, seven times more likely to receive multiple out-of-school suspensions than white girls and three times more likely to receive referrals to law enforcement. Black boys experienced lower rates of the same punishments compared with white boys.

In New York City, Black girls in elementary and middle school were about 11 times more likely to be suspended than their white peers in 2017, according to a report from the Education Trust-New York, a research and advocacy group. In Iowa, Black girls were nine times more likely to be arrested at school than white girls, according to a state-by-state analysis conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"We are in a battle for the souls of Black girls," said Monique W. Morris, the executive director of Grantmakers for Girls of Color and author of the book " Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School."

Image

Kaia Rolle and her grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, at the State Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla., in March as state legislators worked to pass a law requiring officers to set procedures for arresting children under 10. Credit... Bobby Caina Calvan/Associated Press

The disproportionate discipline rates among girls indicate what researchers have long said about all Black children: It is not that they misbehave more than their peers, but their behaviors may be judged more harshly. Federal civil rights investigations have found generally that Black students are punished more harshly than their white peers for the same behavior. Black girls in particular are more likely to be punished for subjective infractions like dress code violations and insubordination.

Alliyah Logan, a recent New York City high school graduate, said she routinely saw her Black female friends punished for dress code violations that did not affect her white classmates.

"There would be white girls who wore the same exact outfits or even worse than us," she said. "They would wear sheer tops and stuff like that, and I would never see anyone call them out. But if a Black student wore a tank top, then that was a problem."

Sophia Lusala, a junior at Iowa City High School, said she often felt the effects of the "loud, sassy, Black girl" stereotype. In math class last year, when a teacher said he would not review a certain lesson, she asked why - and landed in the hallway "to calm down," she said.

"We've been in school growing our minds so that we can challenge things," she said. "But when we do so, we're punished for it."

Black girls are viewed by educators as more suspicious, mature, provocative and aggressive than their white peers, said Rebecca Epstein, the executive director of the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality and an author of the first robust study of "adultification bias" against Black girls. The study found that Black girls as young as 5 were viewed by adults as less innocent than white girls.

"Developmentally, Black girls and white girls are the same - regardless of any differences in outward presentation," she said.

The Binghamton lawsuit, filed last year by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Morrison & Foerster law firm against the Binghamton City School District, will test whether such studies can translate into legal recourse.

The organization argued that administrators "were motivated by false race- and gender-based stereotypes in directing, facilitating and conducting these unlawful searches" on Ms. McKinstry's daughter and three other 12-year-old Black girls. The school nurse who conducted the searches called the girls "loud, disrespectful and having 'attitudes,'" the complaint said. It accused the nurse of commenting that the breasts of one of the girls were unusually large for her age and of invoking the "stereotypical view of Black girls as older and more mature than white girls of similar age."

"This case is about the criminalization of Black childhood," said Cara McClellan, a lawyer who is representing the girls.

Last month, a Syracuse, N.Y., judge ruled that the case could go forward on unlawful search claims but granted the school district's motion to dismiss the race discrimination charge, in part because the complaint's data was not recent or granular enough to show that administrators targeted the girls because of their race. He wrote that the "defects in plaintiffs' complaint" were technical and that a "better pleading could cure them." The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund plans to amend its filing to bolster its race discrimination claims.

In a statement, Shannon T. O'Connor, the lawyer for the Binghamton City School District, maintained its position that the four girls "presented symptoms that suggested the school nurse should provide a standard health and safety check," and that they were not strip-searched. She said the girls were cleared without "incident, complaint or discipline of any kind."

"This has been a trying time for students and educators, one made more so, here, by the interference of an outside interest determined on making a spectacle," Ms. O'Connor said.

In 2014, President Barack Obama announced a national initiative called My Brother's Keeper to improve the lives of young Black men. Motivated in part by the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012, Mr. Obama said the initiative was an effort to "change the statistics - not just for the sake of the young men and boys, but for the sake of America's future." Among the program's goals: school discipline reform.

A few months later, Kimberlé Crenshaw, a professor and scholar of race theory, wrote an opinion article titled "The Girls Obama Forgot." She also published a report that concluded Black girls were all but ignored by policymakers, funders and researchers in discipline discussions. An NAACP Legal Defense Fund report in 2014 said inattention to Black girls had "fueled the assumption that all girls are doing fine in school," though they also sustained academic and economic setbacks.

An issues brief in March 2014 by the Education Department concluded that "while boys receive more than two out of three suspensions, Black girls are suspended at higher rates" than "girls of any other race or ethnicity and most boys."

But scholars say that Black girls are still seen as a footnote. "The attitude is: Everything starts with boys. Paint it pink, and it works for girls," Ms. Epstein said.

President Barack Obama announcing the My Brother's Keeper initiative in 2014 with boys from a Chicago youth program at the White House. Credit... Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times

As the nation's political leadership has grown more diverse, that may be changing. Last year, Representative Ayanna S. Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts, introduced a bill that targeted the ​disproportionate discipline rates of Black students, highlighting girls.

Senator Kamala Harris of California, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, tweeted in 2017, "It's time to address the underlying issues in our education system that limit Black girls' opportunities before they even reach college."

LaTasha DeLoach has been working for years through the Iowa-based organizations G!World and Sankofa Outreach Connection to dismantle the perception that Black girls are not as endangered by systemic racism as boys.

"These are slave narratives," she said. "Black men were publicly hanged, while Black women were raped in secret. This tendency to hide Black women's pain dates back years."

In 2015, when Ms. DeLoach was elected as the first Black woman to serve on the Iowa City Community School Board in 30 years, she began raising alarms about Black girls' discipline rates. The data showed that 75 percent of Black female discipline referrals were for disruption, compared with 19 percent for white girls; 69 percent were for defiance, insubordination or noncompliance, compared with 19 percent for white girls.

"When you walk into a school here and you're a Black girl, they're just waiting for you to open your mouth," Ms. DeLoach said.

The Iowa City Community School District said in a statement that it was "committed to identifying, understanding and rectifying disproportionality within our schools."

A report by the Education Trust and the National Women's Law Center, released in August, urged school districts to seek alternatives to suspensions and detentions for girls of color. Girls of color, it concluded, were being subjected to "punishments that have more to do with who these girls are rather than what they do."

Cpl. Betty Covington of the Baltimore City School Police Department agrees.

In Baltimore, Black girls were about four times more likely than white girls to get suspended, and more than twice as likely as white girls to get expelled in the 2016-2017 school year, according to a 2018 report by the N.A.A.C.P.

When Corporal Covington joined the department in 1998, she said she found herself "arresting kids for stuff they didn't even have control over." Black girls were suspended for fighting while their white or Latina classmates were consoled. So she created Girls Expecting More Success, or GEMS, a nonprofit youth program.

"These girls are going to grow up and have babies," Corporal Covington said. "So, if I save a girl, I save a family, a whole community."

A dozen girls gathered in a principal's office this year to reflect on their relationship with their unlikely mentor.

"Police are out here shooting people up and locking people up, but Officer Covington is different," said Zoey Jones, an eighth grader in the GEMS program. "She pays attention to us for the positive stuff."

Kaia Jones said she remembered seeing Corporal Covington cross the hallway of Digital Harbor High School, when she was in ninth grade.

"She said, 'You caught my attention,' and I was like, 'Lord, not today,'" recalled Kaia Jones, who graduated in 2019 and was known as outspoken, "a fighter."

The officer told her she was "outstanding" and asked her to join the program.

Corporal Covington "tells us that nobody can say we don't have the magic," Kaia Jones said. "We threaten society because we're the latest trendsetters, we don't let nobody walk over us, and people want to be like us. Black girls go through the most. But it's because we're just so powerful."

"Justice would be for people to know what we go through now, and for this never to happen to another African-American female," Ms. McKinstry's daughter said. Credit... Miranda Barnes for The New York Times

The long-term trauma for Black girls from disproportionate school discipline is little understood, experts say.

"We talk about death a lot in the Black community. We see physical death a lot, but what we don't see a lot is spirit murdering," said Bettina L. Love, an education professor at the University of Georgia.

"When we talk about racism, we talk about it in terms of statistics and numbers," she said. "But we don't talk about what happens when you have to go into a school where nobody in that building believes you, or believes in you."

The Binghamton case spurred protests and petitions, but the girls - now 14 and starting high school - see no justice.

"Justice would be for people to know what we go through now, and for this never to happen to another African-American female," said Ms. McKinstry's daughter, whom The New York Times is not identifying to protect the privacy of a minor.

A state investigation ordered by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo produced a report that listed the district's policies, including its strip-search policy, but did not address the girls' case. The New York State Police Department said its investigation was closed without charges.

In their first public comments since the case erupted, the Binghamton girls said they still struggled to make sense of their treatment.

"White girls can laugh or be giddy, and teachers aren't going to think they're high," said one of the girls, the daughter of Lia Silva. "They're going to think they're just having fun."

In the days after the episode, the district acknowledged in a statement the "unintended consequences of making the students feel traumatized," and said it was working with the girls' families "to support their children's success."

But the girls say that because the district continues to deny their experience, they still do not feel comfortable attending school here.

Ms. McKinstry's daughter said her middle school grades were affected, some falling from A's to F's. "It's harder to focus when you can feel people are against you," she said.

"I can't even go to the nurse's office comfortably," said her classmate, Ms. Silva's daughter.

Lia Silva, the mother of a girl in Binghamton, N.Y., who said she was strip-searched at school, says she has run out of ways to assure her daughter that she can feel safe. Credit... Miranda Barnes for The New York Times

Their mothers have run out of ways to assure them.

"She feels like I can't save her from things anymore," Ms. Silva said. "She's still asking me, 'Mom, why did they do that?'"

For Kaia Rolle in Florida, bed-wetting and nightmares were the first signs of trauma, followed by separation anxiety and crippling fear of the police, her grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, said.

"You can't even raise your voice at Kaia to discipline her," Ms. Kirkland said. "If you reach for her, she'll flail around or run around screaming that somebody's trying to hurt her."

Kaia, now 7, has made progress. She sees the injustice: "She said, 'Grandma, if I was white, they would not have arrested me,'" Ms. Kirkland recalled.

But sleep apnea surgery eased her exhaustion-induced tantrums. She secured a partial scholarship to attend a private school, where she is thriving. A Florida law, the Kaia Rolle Act, requires officers to set procedures for arresting children under the age of 10.

But she has a long road ahead.

"Ten, 20 years from now, she could be pulled over for a traffic stop and have a flashback to her arrest, and it could cause her to attack the officer or pull away," Ms. Kirkland said. "And we all know how that could end."

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Discipline disparities between Black and white boys have driven reform efforts for years. But Black girls are arguably the most at-risk student group in the United States. "It's not fair that now I have to say, 'It's OK to be Black and hyper and giddy,' that it's not a crime to smile," Zulayka McKinstry said of her daughter.

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Mavis Staples - "99 and 1/2" (Full Album Stream)

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We acknowledge that white supremacy is a reality in the United States and that racism happens on the internal, interpersonal, institutional, and ideological level. We recognize that anti-Blackness is a central component of racism, and that state violence against Black people is a crisis.

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Tim Wise - Colorblind Denial and White Privilege

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Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels new, but in truth it's an old story.

Why? Where did the notion of "whiteness" come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for?

Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into these questions, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017. The series editor is Loretta Williams.

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Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels ne

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Events of the past few years have turned a challenging spotlight on White people, and Whiteness, in the United States. An introduction to our series exploring what it means to be White. By John Biewen

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Racism in the United States has existed since the colonial era, when white Americans were given legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights while these same rights were denied to other races and minorities. from

Today, with the help of Bethany Edwards, founder of Biracial Bookworms, and her daughter Havana, we are tackling a controversial topic that we hope will help to move the conversation forward: White Fragility.

White fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. from White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo

"Antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and "allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to 'bad people' (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively."

If you think about it, the United States was founded through the genocide of the American Indians and the enslavement of African Americans. These acts of violence are contrary to Christianity and so therein lies the need to create "justification mythology." These myths are present today in recognizable forms of stereotypes:

If we assume that most agree that racism exists in the United States, what do we do about it from the standpoint of being white?
From Books for Littles: Children's Books About White Privilege

You might want to shield your child from the ugliness of the world. I do too on most days. However, having that choice is a privilege, and most often; White privilege. An alternative option for every caregiver is to choose to open the conversation so you can guide your children.

As early as 6 months, a baby's brain can notice race-based differences. By ages 2 to 4, children can internalize racial bias and start assigning meaning to race. 5 to 8-year-olds begin to place value judgments on similarities and differences. Moreover, by age 12 children have a complete set of stereotypes about every racial, ethnic, and religious group in society.

From Time Magazine: Why White Parents Need to Do More Than Talk to Their Kids About Racism

"I found that kids I interviewed who attended private schools attended whiter schools and perceived that they were smarter and more successful than their public-school peers. As such, these kids developed understandings of where they fit into the world. They told me that they knew they were special and more deserving than other kids.

How white children learn about racism in America does not only happen during the interactions they have at school, though. Everyday behaviors of white parents also matter: when to lock the car doors, what conversations to have at the dinner table, what books and magazines to have around the house, how to react to news headlines, who to invite over for summer cookouts, whether and how to answer questions posed by kids about race, who parents are friends with themselves, when to roll one's eyes, what media to consume, how to respond to overtly racist remarks made by Grandpa at a family dinner and where to spend leisure time. (Restaurants, vacation destinations and community events can be deliberately and by-default mostly white - or purposefully not.)"

p.s. Pair this post with A Unit on Skin Color: Picture Books and Videos

Children's Books That Talk About White Privilege

My 8-year-old daughter Havana (@thetinydiplomat) recently stood up during Read Across America week to protest the racism and harmful stereotypes in Dr. Seuss books. Havana understands that white privilege is spending an entire week reading books and not even noticing that have zero girls of color in any of them.

White privilege is reading books all week that center White people as the main protagonists and non-White characters in a subservient role. White privilege is celebrating an author who based characters on Blackface. Her solo protest was ignored by the administration and the PTA. However, the shirt she wore each day forced the conversations to happen among her classmates and teachers. Baby steps ARE steps.

The list of books Havana and I have prepared below take a more intentional approach to breaking down barriers. Furthermore, they will navigate steps to take with children so their behaviors and attitudes do less harm to marginalized communities. However, you can use almost any book on your shelf to discuss the way White supremacy pervades any community.

Lastly, simply reading these books won't be enough. Have these conversations with BIPOC people in your every day life. Have the courage to ask people in your life about how you might be unintentionally or unconsciously upholding a system of white supremacy. Above all, when they respond; really listen.

Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness

NOT MY IDEA: A BOOK ABOUT WHITENESS is a picture book that invites white children and parents to become curious about racism, accept that it's real, and cultivate justice. It's one of the first picture books that provides an honest explanation for kids about the current state of racial tension in America.

Purchase NOT MY IDEA: A BOOK ABOUT WHITENESS on Amazon | Shop your local indie bookstore.

Race Cars: A Book About White Privilege by Jenny Devenny

RACE CARS is a springboard for parents and educators to facilitate tough conversations with kids about race, privilege and oppression. This incredible book tells the story of 2 best friends; a white car and a black car. The two cars have different experiences and face different rules while entering the same race.

Purchase RACE CARS on Amazon | Shop your local indie bookstore.

Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano

SOMETHING HAPPENED IN OUR TOWN follows two families - one White, one Black - as they discuss a police shooting of a Black man in their community. In almost every school, children are practicing intruder drills. Again, every day violence is plaguing marginalized communities because of the systematic oppression of White supremacy. The story aims to answer children's questions about such traumatic events. Lastly, it will help children identify and counter racial injustice in their own lives.

*Note: It also includes an extensive note to caregivers with guidelines for discussing race and racism with children, child-friendly definitions, and sample dialogues. I also highly recommend following Nelba Marquez-Greene on Twitte r who lost her daughter Ana-Grace to gun violence in the Sandy Hook school shooting. She continually has great advice and resources to offer.

Purchase SOMETHING HAPPENED IN OUR TOWN on Amazon | Shop your local indie bookstore.

Let's Talk About Race by Julius Lester, illustrated by Karen Barbour

LET'S TALK ABOUT RACE shares the author's own story as he explores what makes each of us special. This stunning picture book introduces race as just one of many chapters in a person's story. This book helps children learn strategies and the vocabulary to discuss what they see. Most importantly, the book encourages kids to begin those courageous conversations in order to create a future that resolves differences.

Purchase LET'S TALK ABOUT RACE on Amazon | Shop your local indie bookstore.

Lila and the Crow by Gabrielle Grimard

LILA AND THE CROW deals with the loneliness that often comes with dark skin. Bullying is a topic largely covered in schools. However, specifically being bullied for the color of your skin vs. not sporting the latest fashion trends is VERY different. In this book, Lila is mocked by others because of her dark skin and hair. At her lowest point of despair, a magical encounter with the crow opens Lila's eyes to the beauty of being different. This revelation gives her the courage to proudly embrace her true self.

Purchase LILA AND THE CROW on Amazon | Shop your local indie bookstore.

Brave Ballerina by Michelle Meadows, illustrated by Ebony Glenn

In BRAVE BALLERINA, Janet Collins wanted to be a ballerina in the 1930s and 40s. This was a time when racial segregation was widespread in the United States. Janet pursued dance passionately, despite being rejected from discriminatory dance schools. As a teenager, she was accepted into the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Janet refused the acceptance based on their condition that she paint her skin white for performances.

Janet continued to go after her dreams, never compromising her values along the way. From her early childhood lessons to the height of her success as the first African-American prima ballerina in the Metropolitan Opera; this is the story of a remarkable pioneer.

Purchase BRAVE BALLERINA on Amazon | Shop your local indie bookstore.

A Scarf for Keik0 by Ann Malaspina, illustrated by Merrilee Liddiard

A SCARF FOR KEIKO is a great example of how standing up for what is right. The book uses a simple handmade give to show kids how to treat others with respect. In turn, they learn that it is only when kids are different, it leads to a validation of someone's humanity.

It's 1942. Sam's class is knitting socks for soldiers and Sam is a terrible knitter. Keiko is a good knitter, but some kids at school don't want anything to do with her because the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor and her family is Japanese American. A Scarf for Keiko leads kids through a tale of knowing what they should do vs. what others want them to do.

Purchase A SCARF FOR KEIKO on Amazon | Shop your local indie bookstore.

Middle Grade Book Recommendations

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Rita Williams-Garcia's book ONE CRAZY SUMMER tells a story of three sisters who experience the Black Panther party firsthand and brings about a discussion on cultural and ethnic identity. Critical themes in this books are sisterhood, family, emotional abuse/neglect, activism, prejudice, history, and slanted/biased media coverage.

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kelly

One of the biggest white privileges is the stereotype that comes to mind when you describe a person as "All-American". Most will picture a white person with blond hair and blue eyes. In ALL AMERICAN BOYS, authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely's wrote story of stereotyping and racial profiling that is one to be read, and read again.

Further Suggested Reading

White Supremacy in the Classroom - Tools and strategies from teachers of color to guide learning how to fight white supremacy and white privilege in the classroom to help raise empathetic global citizens.

Dear White Teacher: 13 Books to Read About Racial Literacy - Teachers, if there is time to put pictures of flair pens and color coordinated art bins on Instagram, there is time to research how to break the system of racial inequality in the classroom.

When Racial Bias is Taught Through Children's Literature - Too often schools are the breeding grounds for racial inequality if they choose not to face it head-on. Racial conflicts based on white privilege amongst young kids often remain hidden. In turn, those who pay the price: students of color.
This guest post is by Bethany Edwards. Bethany is an international elementary educator as well as a reading and literacy specialist. She blogs on various aspects of multicultural education from a global perspective at Biracial Bookworms. Connect with Biracial Bookworms
Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Facebook Group | Facebook Page | Newsletter

p.s. Here are a few more children's books to talk about White Fragility.

The People Shall Continue by Simon J. Ortiz, illustrated by Sharol Graves

Indigenous peoples of the United States prevail despite attempts throughout history to eradicate their language, culture, and way of life. [picture book, ages 6 and up]

Sylvia & Aki by Winifred Conkling

This book reveals the remarkable, never-before-told story-based on true events-of Mendez vs. Westminster School District, the California court case that desegregated schools for Latino children and set the stage for Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education at the national level.

From Booklist: This novel presents a fictionalized account of injustices endured by two real California children during World War II and is based on multiple interviews with both and other historical records. In alternating chapters, Conkling follows the forced relocation of young Aki Munemitsu and her family to a camp in Arizona and the experiences of Sylvia Mendez, who moves into Aki's old room when her father rents the Munemitsus' asparagus farm. When his children are denied enrollment in the town's main school, Sylvia's father institutes what becomes the landmark desegregation suit Mendez v. Westminster School District. [chapter book, ages 9 and up] Pair this book with Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation .

Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh

The battle for Civil Rights was fought not just in the Deep South but also in Southern California near where I grew up. It also was fought by browns as well as blacks. Almost 10 years before Brown vs. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California that was aimed against Hispanic Americans. This lesser-known story shows the depth and breadth of the Civil Rights Movement. [picture book, ages 7 and up]

Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary of the Landmark Civil Rights Case by Patricia Hruby Powell, illustrated by Shadra Strickland

In lyrical, spare free verse, this chapter book tells the story of two teenagers who fell in love, got married, breaking the law, and changed the law. Their landmark case made mixed-race marriage legal. 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark case Loving vs. Virginia, which fought against discrimination, racism, and segregation, and WON! [free verse chapter book, ages 14 and up]

When A Ghost Talks Listen by Tim Tingle

It might not be widely known that the Choctaw were allies of the U.S. Government and that Choctaw Chief Pushmataha was also a U.S. Army General and close friend of Andrew Jackson. In this excellent series, the reader learns how Chief Pushmataha and other Choctaw chiefs were murdered by Andrew Jackson and his people, in order to remove them from their lands. [middle grade, ages 8 and up]

Ghost Boys by Jewel Parker Rhodes

This timely book shows the perspective of twelve-year-old Jerome, now a ghost. His murder by police, the result of a toy being mistaken for a weapon, shows how this tragedy affects Jerome, his family, but also the police officer and his family. Jewel Parker Rhodes also weaves in Emmitt Tills' story. Use this book to understand the genesis of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. [middle grade, ages 9 and up]

Thank you to everyone on my Instagram who helped me with more great book suggestions:

We're reading Mixed by Aree Chung right now (you can see a couple pages in my stories). It's a great way to introduce some ideas for very young kids. We also have Something Happened in Our Town by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard. My five year-old sort of understands it but it's probably better for 6 or 7+.

Mixed by @arreechung is absolutely fantastic! 👍

My book THE ARABIC QUILT is coming out at the end of this year and makes for good conversation on foreign languages/accents.

Not my Idea by Anastasia Higginbotham

Thanks for putting this out there! We agree that Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness should be on your list!@ahigginbooks

Not my idea : a book about whiteness / written and illustrated by Anastasia Higginbotham @dottirpress, 2018. @ahigginbooks

I second Not My Idea!

Not My Idea by Anastasia Higgenbotham

Breakout by Kate Messner, You Don't Know Everything Jilly P! by Alex Gino, Watch Us Rise by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan. First two are mg, last one YA.

Iggies house by Judy Blume

Naomis Too by @olugbemisolarhudayperkovichand @audrey_vernick

Also loved "Something Happened in our Town" it's a picture book but tackles police brutality & being a white ally. It's amazing.

This is a favorite.

Blended by Sharon Draper is new and fabulous.

We March by Shane l. Evans. I talked with my preschool child about the pictures in the book. How we are/do similar things to people depicted. How they look different than us or each other. Why people did and do March. How we can behave if we see someone is not being treated with respect.
A Unit on Skin Color: Picture Books and Videos Top 10 Multicultural Dance Picture Books To examine any book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Also always taking about what we should do if we wrong someone else... At this age it's almost as important to have the conversation inspired by the text and images that they can relate to

Thank you for addressing this! At the risk of self-promotion😬, standing up to racism is at the heart of my new middle-grade novel, MY YEAR IN THE MIDDLE. (

Here Wee Read also has a great book list: So You Want to Talk About Race: Picture Book Recommendations for Kids

p.p.s. Related posts:

My books:

BEST #OWNVOICES CHILDREN'S BOOKS: My Favorite Diversity Books for Kids Ages 1-12 is a book that I created to highlight books written by authors who share the same marginalized identity as the characters in their books.

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Racism in the United States has existed since the colonial era, when white Americans were given legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights while these same rights were denied to other races and minorities. from Wikipedia Today, with the help of Bethany Edwards, founder of Biracial Bookworms, and her daughter Havana, we are tackling a controversial topic that we hope will help [...]

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Jon Batiste Performing Blackbird - 09 FEB 2016

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Strange Fruit - the story behind "The Song of the Century"

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Billie Holiday - "Strange Fruit" Live 1959 [Reelin' In The Years Archives]

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Lyla June - All Nations Rise (Official Music Video)

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David Bowie Criticizes MTV for Not Playing Videos by Black Artists | MTV News

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Kimberlé Crenshaw: The urgency of intersectionality

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Now more than ever, it's important to look boldly at the reality of race and gender bias -- and understand how the two can combine to create even more harm. Kimberlé Crenshaw uses the term "intersectionality" to describe this phenomenon; as she says, if you're standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you're likely to get hit by both.

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***

You've probably seen the video of Amy Cooper, member of the white women's masked anti-leash-law brigade, freaking the fuck out at a Black birder named Chris Cooper (no relation, OBVIOUSLY, I don't even know why I had to say that) in Central Park.

He asked her to leash her dog. She refused. She screamed at Chris that she would call the cops and tell them he was Black. "I'm going to tell them there's an African American man threatening my life," she says.* And then she called those cops, changing the affect of her voice to a higher, more tremulous pitch so as to sound more like a victim.
*quote added for clarity after original publication at a reader's request: It's important to know that she decided to lie about this man to the police, said as much out loud, and then executed her plan. It's important to hear her intentions in her own words.
This post isn't about the video. It's about the responses to the video. Specifically, social media responses by progressive white women that might have come from a good place, but hoo boy, do they land in the bad place.
This post is about racist anti-racism, so prevalent in the instincts that led to millions of unexamined reactions to an act of racist violence.
So here they are. Five racist anti-racism responses that "good" white women give to viral posts.

1. The Self-Flagellating "I'm So Ashamed to be a White Woman" Response
Why do you want to say it?
I often feel personally ashamed when I see white women merrily fanning the flames of white supremacy. I often feel guilty about things another white woman did. I often feel tempted to say as much out loud in public.
But why, Katie?
Because it's disgusting. I want to express my disgust.
But why, Katie?
Because I'm overwhelmed by the awfulness of what happened. Because I want to normalize white people talking about race. And so everyone knows I'm disgusted by it.
Ah. So this is about you, then.
Yes, it is.
What's the problem with it?
I'm not saying you should ignore your feelings. I'm questioning the impulse to express them in the context of calling attention to a person who survived an assault. I share your feelings. But we have to recognize that there's a difference between experiencing those feelings, and dropping them in a public discourse, along with an implicit request for absolution.

The "I'm so ashamed" response is about you. There are two problems with making a conversation about racist violence about your level of disgust with racist violence:

It doesn't address the systems or personal choices that led to the racist violence, nor does it focus on the person who actually experienced the racist violence. It focuses on the inner lives of white people who are imagining both what it would feel like to have to survive that kind of assault, and also what it would feel like to have committed it. The work you need to do? It isn't identifying the surface emotion (shame!) and calling it a day. The work you need to do is identifying what parts of yourself you recognize in Amy (they are there), and what parts you see in the community around you.

On some level, telegraphing our disgust with racism encourages white people to see "talking about racism" as on par with "engaging in anti-racism," and it is not. We all agree that racism is an abhorrent stain on our culture, past, and present. We all feel ashamed. We all hate the racism. But what's the next step in that conversation? We don't get a prize for being willing to talk about racism. We certainly don't get a prize for feeling shitty that racism exists. It's insulting that so many of us are willing to congratulate ourselves for meeting a bar so low it's buried under ground.

INSTEAD OF POSTING "I'm so ashamed"...
Do not say that. Say "I see you," or "that's awful," an expression of connection that isn't about you and your feelings. Remind yourself that Chris is the most important person here.

Like the comments of other posters and find some new voices to follow in the comments section.

Those feelings of shame and disgust are real. You've got to process them before you can let them go. Process them privately, on your own or with another (WHITE) friend.
*** Update, 6/3/2020 ***
These "Instead ofs" used to include "I'm sorry," as a good option for something to say. After a long talk with an incredible woman, I've removed "I'm sorry" from this post. I plan to write more about that when it's appropriate for me to re-enter the conversation, but for now, understand that a nonspecific "I'm sorry" communicates a division between the person in pain and the person providing comfort. There can be no such division in anti-racism. "I'm sorry for your experience," could easily telegraph an unspoken addendum: "But I won't make it my experience."

Racism seeks to make all of us less human. Our whiteness doesn't inoculate us against the toxicity of racism. We have to be in this fight, and not because we're "nice people." Our skin is in this game, too.

If you're apologizing, apologize as one human to another, for something you did or neglected to do, a la:
"I'm sorry I didn't take the time to learn about this before. It was selfish. I'm here now."

***end update***

2. The "Not All White Women Are Like That, Personally I Hate Her" Response
Why do you want to say it?
Many of the comments, especially comments by people of color, will say things like "White women always do this," or "White women are so dangerous."

You want to say "Not all white women!" because you would never do that! You want to make sure they know you're on their side here! And besides, you're not dangerous! You're just as disgusted as they are.
What's the problem with it?
It's funny how many "not all white women" posts ACTUALLY BEGIN WITH THE WORDS "NOT ALL WHITE WOMEN."

These responses follow a pretty standard formula:

"Not all white women" + act of racist violence + "Some of us" + claim to have experienced racism as a white person/some other form of marginalization + "I myself" + claim of anti-racist cred including but not limited to "I have black children," "I married a black person," "I work with black people," "I marched for BLM," or "I minored in African-American studies" + "I'm on YOUR SIDE here!"

Please allow me to take you on a journey of snorkeling. (Stay with me, I have a point.)

So imagine you're snorkeling. You're splishin and a-splashin, enjoying the pretty fishies, living your best life out there in the sunny warm water.

And suddenly, you come face-to-face with a shark.

Has *this* shark ever bitten you? No.

Has *this* shark chomped your leg off? No!

Is it therefore reasonable for you to snuggle up to Great-Whitey McChompers, because you don't want to judge all sharks?

Hell, no. You've got shit to live for. And that's not hyperbole, not in the context of snorkeling with sharks, nor in the context of being Black under white supremacy.

REAL TALK. THAT'S A SHARK. I KNOW WHAT A SHARKS DO. Even if this shark hasn't done it yet, I'm not willing to risk my life to prove that this shark is one of the good ones. #Notallsharks.

"Not all sharks" asks snorkelers to snuggle up to sharks, to make sure the shark feels good. "Not all white people" asks Black people to be willing to stop trying to save their own lives, to take care of white people's feelings.

To be even clearer, when you respond to a post about racist violence by immediately saying "But I'VE NEVER DONE THAT!" you completely miss the point.

You didn't do it, BUT. IT. HAPPENED.

This viral post with 175k likes is not about whether or not you, Jenna, have ever called the cops on a Black bird watcher. This viral post is about AMY, a WOMAN. WHO. DID, and Chris, the MAN. SHE. DID. IT. TO.

When you insert yourself into the conversation as an example of "a good one," here's what you do:

Undercut the validity of the facts of what actually happened, because if you're talking about "not all white people enact racist violence!" then you're not talking about the fact that all Black people experience racist violence.

Shift the focus of the conversation away from the disgusting crime that occurred and could have killed a man, and toward your sweetness and light. (proving that you don't want to talk about actual racism so much as you want to talk about how cool you are.)

Tell on yourself, because there are no good ones.

White supremacy promises white people, and especially white women, that their kind hearts will make them welcome in every situation. The truth is, we are not welcome in every situation. Our kind hearts are still super racist. All of 'em. Always will be. Pretending we're not exactly what we are only puts more Black people in front of our blundering, clumsy, flailing, thoroughly racist anti-racism. So if you really want to start working on anti-racism? Stop lying.
INSTEAD OF POSTING "Not all White Women..."
DO NOT SAY THAT. Say, "I see you," or "that's awful," an expression of connection that isn't about you and your feelings.

Remind yourself that Chris is the most important person here.

Like the comments of other posters and find some new voices to follow in the comments section.

Then write this down and stick it to your mirror: "It's not about me."

3. The "Focusing on a Non-Racist Element of the Video" Response
Why do you want to say it?
Everyone's talking about the racism stuff. You don't have anything to add to that conversation. Racism is such a huge problem. It's overwhelming, and there are so many ways a well-intentioned comment can go wrong. Better to not step in that ring just now.

But holy shit, have you seen what that woman is doing to her dog??? A dog is a problem with a solution! That is so wrong! Nobody could possibly defend the way she's treating that dog! Reverse Google image search! Get on LinkedIn! Find her employer! Ping the organization she adopted from! HAS ANYONE SEEN THE DOG?

Of course you care about the man, too. But he's okay. He made it. Now, we have to save the dog!
What's the problem with it?
If you see animal abuse as incontrovertibly wrong, but you see shades of gray in watching a white woman feign hysteria on the phone with the police in the hopes of getting a black man at best incarcerated and at worst killed, you've assigned humanity to the wrong mammal here.

Notice how easily you're able to make the animal abuse NOT ABOUT YOU, but about the victim. Notice how many ways you stumble trying to do the same thing for Chris. "I'm so ashamed! Not all white women!"

Count the comments about the dog. Count the comments about white women's feelings.

Then count the comments about Chris.

I'm not saying animal abuse is cool. It's CLEARLY NOT. If this were a video of a woman strangling a dog in Central Park, your outrage would be totally appropriate. I'm happy as fuck she had that dog taken away, but this is not a happy ending.

This is a video of a woman assaulting a man and trying to get him killed. What she did to the dog is also shitty. Nobody's saying it's not. But seriously.

Stop. Talking. About. The Dog.

You just watched an attempted lynching. Experience that. Sit with it. Understand the weight of history in this moment:

Amy isn't just one more woman calling 911 for no reason at all; she's the granddaughter of the woman who called the cops on a little boy named Emmett, who is the granddaughter of a woman who did worse to boys whose names we don't know.

Chris isn't just one more birder who happened to have his phone out; he's the grandson of Black men who had to learn how to survive in spite of women who'd have them killed them for no reason at all, who survived by learning their grandfathers' lessons, too.

You and I are not just a couple of women struggling to figure out how to respond to the grotesque display we just witnessed; we are the granddaughters of the people who wrung their hands and shook their heads and said, "That's a shame, they ruined his trousers." and didn't do a damn thing but feel bad about it.

INSTEAD OF POSTING ABOUT THE DOG...
DO. NOT. SAY. THAT. Say "I see you," or "that's awful," an expression of connection that isn't about you and your feelings. Remind yourself that Chris is the most important person (and mammal!) here.

Like the comments of other posters and find some new voices to follow in the comments section.

Talk to another (WHITE) friend about why it's so easy to find empathy for animals and so hard to do the same thing for other human beings.

4. The "If I Had Been There, I WOULD HAVE..." Response
Why do you want to say it?
You're mad! You wish you'd been there. You wish you could tell Amy how shitty and gross she is. You would have stomped Amy's ass. When she said she was gonna call the cops you would've snatched her phone out of her hand and said, "What is wrong with you! You oughta be ashamed of yourself! Get your dog on a leash and get the hell outta here! I WILL MAIL YOU YOUR PHONE, you hateful shitbird."

What's the problem with it?
You know what? I think you're ready to take this one. Pop quiz, hotshot.

This problem with this is that the response is about:

a) Chris's Experience

b) Systemic Racism and How We Can Recognize and Dismantle It

c) You Feeling Good About Yourself

YEP! Here we are again.

So much of racist anti-racism is about finding another channel in which white people can save the day.

In this scenario, you're using a Black man's trauma to daydream your own personal Wonder Woman sequel. It's gross. Don't do it.
INSTEAD OF POSTING "IF I'D BEEN THERE..."
Take some time to learn about what to do if you do witness a racist assault like this one. Know what you can do to help protect Black people from racists who look like you. Know what you can do to protect Black people from YOU, too, because white people can step into a fraught situation and make it a whole lot worse for the Black person involved.

Oh, and also DO NOT SAY THAT. Say "I see you," or "that's awful." Remind yourself that Chris is the most important person here.

Like the comments of other posters and find some new voices to follow in the comments section.

5. The "Graduate of An Anti-Racism Seminar Explains The Roots of Systemic Racism" Response
Why do you want to say it?
Well, once I learned the roots of how white women have perpetuated racist violence throughout history, I felt it was my obligation to share that knowledge with my fellow whites. Also, interestingly, even though police officers shoot fewer Black people than white people every year, they do actually shoot a disproportionate percentage of the Black population, which seems to be evidence supporting the claim that Black communities suffer from overpolicing and increased violence at the hands of the state.
What's the problem with it?
Well, hi, yes, this is all about you again. This time your racist anti-racism isn't casting you as the martyr, the innocent, the off-target empath, or the action star. This time your racist anti-racism is casting you as the professor.

Question:

Do you think that there is any level of study you could commit to, any number of hours in a week, every week, every month, every year, that would better educate you about racism than the life of a Black person has educated them?

And do you think, when it comes to witnessing violent racism, like we all just did, your voice is better positioned to share the realities of living with the impact of that racism than the voices of the people who actually live it?

You probably don't think that. You probably think you're helping, sharing information, being a white voice that white ears can more easily hear. And this one's tricky in a way, because that is part of our job in anti-racism.

But over-intellectualization is one way we tend to distance ourselves from the brutal reality of racism. Chris isn't a case. He's a man. Amy isn't a thought experiment. She's a woman. She would have been happy to have him killed for asking her to leash her dog. Experience it. You witnessed it. Don't park it in the spot designated "Interesting racism examples." Let it chill you. You are human and so is he. His life matters. Let the possibilities of what could have happened chill you.
INSTEAD OF POSTING FUN FACTS ABOUT RACISM YOU LEARNED AT THE WORKSHOP... Do not say that. Say "I see you," or "that's awful." Say something one human says to another human when they see pain. Remind yourself that Chris is the most important person here.
There's only one way to respond.

Watch. Read. Listen. Learn. Let it chill you.

Do not respond instinctively, but do not turn away.

It's not about you, but you must be here to experience it.

You're not the martyr, nor an innocent, nor the hero, nor the teacher.

You're a witness. It's not about you, but you must be present.

Do not respond like you always have. Not yet. Absorb it. Let it change you.

*** EDITED TO ADD (5/27/2020) ***
RESOURCES & FAQs
This post moved farther and faster than I anticipated! Thank you to those who have shared and written in, both with questions and opinions. I'm adding a few of the most common questions, some requested resources, and one final note.

How is "Do not respond" different from "silence is compliance"?
This post identifies five of the most common racist anti-racist mistakes made by well-meaning would-be allies, analyzing the intention behind them, recognizing the harm of their impact, and presenting an alternative to these harmful mistakes. In this context, I offer "do not respond," as the better alternative to stepping in the same lily-white cow pies that millions of your sisters have stepped in before you.

So many passionately anti-racist white folks dive into anti-racism without first doing the internal work of learning to recognize all the ways they're dangerous and clumsy with the POC around them. Of course, the goal is to be able to speak up, have these conversations with our coworkers, friends, families, and networks. However, if you don't first learn how to un-center yourself, then the conversations you'll be having will remain conversations about how white people feel about racism. They'll make you feel good, but they won't change anything.

I understand what NOT to say... what CAN I say?
Let me answer your question with another question! What can you say... to do what? To achieve what purpose? To prove that Not All White People... wait... To prove that I'm ashamed of... oh, I see what you did there.

To comfort Black people who have once again been reminded of the threats that await them when they go BIRDING? There's nothing you can say. It's fucking horrifying and you can say so. You can say "I'm sorry." You can say "That's awful." Do those feel insufficient? That's because they are. There's nothing any of us can say.

However, there are things you can DO. Quoting Rachel Cargle (her words in bold):
"When I keep you informed on the blatant abuse, racism and trauma happening to women of color and their families, I need to hear: 'I've found an organization that helps in these types of instances and I've donated money.'
Here are links to some orgs that Cargle highlights:
Southern Poverty Law Center United Negro College Fund Black Lives Matter Color of Change
Or any local organization serving people of color, that is also led by people of color. Here in Washington, I donate and volunteer for a group called Making Connections, a college readiness mentorship program for first-generation young women of color. If you have a local organization you'd like to shout out, please post in the comments!
'I've brought this topic up to my coworkers and family so we can talk through what's happening.'
Commit to learning how to talk about race, accepting that your anti-racism is not the solution to a problem, but rather a recovery program that will last a lifetime. There are thousands of articles and numerous books written about how to have conversations with loved ones about race. Two things here:

Yes, I'm aware of the irony of being a white woman saying this, but when you look for anti-racism advice, you should always look for information by people of color. Not only will you be learning from experts, but you'll also be economically supporting people of color by consuming, sharing, and purchasing their content. I recommend Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk About Race.

Do not call up your Black friend to ask their advice. There is so much information out there. Go find it.

'I've researched more on this and I have learned more about the history of this particular race issue we have in our country.'
Again, there is so much information out there about the history of race violence in America. 13th is streaming on Netflix. So is When They See Us.

Ibram X. Kendi compiled a reading list for you.

On the internet, there are so many incredible educators. I personally follow and support Lace on Race, Real Talk: WOC & Allies for Racial Justice and Anti-Oppression, and Tamela Gordon's Black Feminist Book Club.
Your shock isn't enough. Your wow isn't solidarity. Your actions are the only thing I can accept at this point."

Why did you write this post about how these stories are not about white women, and end it with the mandate that white women must let it change us? Doesn't that make it... about us?
Ugh, I know. It's a paradox. You have to work on yourself to learn to uncenter yourself. You have to look hard at yourself to unlearn your self-myopia. You have to stare long into the mirror to remember there's other shit you need to be watching. This is step one.

What about white men? Don't they do the same things that white women do?
Good question. I wrote this piece specifically for white women because the offender in this case was a white woman, and anecdotally, I was seeing the vast majority of these responses from other white women. Of course white men are racist, too, and need to do the same work of de-centering themselves.

White women play a critical and unique role in upholding white supremacy through weaponizing the myth of their fragility - again, if you haven't watch 13th immediately. Men have used "the defense of a white woman's honor" as an excuse to abuse, assault, enslave, and murder Black men for hundreds of years.

Also, because white women experience the pointy end of sexist oppression, we sometimes feel inoculated against jabbing anyone else. We have to learn that as white people, we have a pointy end too, and we're responsible for keeping the people around us safe.

Finally, I wanted to include a final comment in response to a note I got from a reader who is a person of color. This person said it's isolating and frustrating to see only Black voices raised in outrage, over and over again. This person said they WANT to see white folks raise their voices in outrage.

I wanted to share this comment so you understand two things:

There is no "right" way to do anti-racism. People of color deserve a wide range of support and justice from people like you and me. You might say something that offends one person of color and validates another. You might get checked.

And in that situation, it's your job to apologize to the person you offended, and resist the urge to ask for a cookie from the person you validated. You'll fuck up. Apologize, learn, and do better next time.

"Do not respond" is the first step, the moment that you decide to notice your instinct, question it, and choose to start changing it.

You can't stay on that first step. There are millions of resources out there for you. Keep going. If you have a question, shoot me an email.

xoxo
*Please note that I changed the word choice in this post from "Do not respond" to "Do not say that," after the post was live.

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5 Racist Anti-Racism Responses "Good" White Women Give to Viral Posts - KatyKatiKate

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You've probably seen the video of Amy Cooper, member of the white women's masked anti-leash-law brigade, freaking the fuck out at a Black birder named Chris Cooper (no relation, OBVIOUSLY, I don't even know why I had to say that) in Central Park. He asked her to leash her dog.

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The Lovings' landmark civil rights case overturned bans against interracial marriage in 16 states.

One morning in 1958, the county sheriff and two deputies burst into Mildred and Richard Loving's bedroom in Central Point, Virginia. Their crime? Mildred was black and Richard was white; the couple had broken Virginia's anti-miscegenation law, which criminalized interracial marriages. The couple decided to fight the ban, becoming plaintiffs in a milestone civil rights case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. When the court sided with the Lovings in their unanimous decision on June 12, 1967 after a nine-year legal battle, the historic ruling overturned bans on interracial marriage in 16 states. Fifty years after the historic change they brought about, the Lovings' granddaughter, Eugenia Cosby, succinctly summed up the lesson they taught the world: "If it's genuine love, color doesn't matter."

Mildred Loving was born Mildred Jeter in 1939 in Central Point, Virginia, and was of African American and Native American descent. She met Richard Loving, who was white, while she was in high school. They married in Washington, D.C. in 1958, but returned home to Virginia to begin their married life - not knowing that their marriage was criminal in their home state. Early one morning that same year, while the Lovings were sleeping, police burst into their bedroom. One of the policemen asked Richard, "Who is this woman you're sleeping with?" Mildred replied, "I'm his wife," while Richard pointed to their wedding certificate hanging on the wall. The sheriff told them, "That's no good here." The Lovings had broken Virginia's anti-miscegenation law, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, and plead guilty to violating the law. After being arrested and jailed, they were ordered to leave the state and not return for 25 years.

The Lovings moved to nearby Washington, D.C. where interracial marriages were legal, but they found the law unjust and yearned to return home to their small farming community of Central Point. In 1963, Mildred wrote Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to ask for his help fighting the ban. Kennedy referred her to the ACLU, and the ACLU accepted their case. The milestone case Loving v. Virginia went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously in favor of the Lovings, asserting that the Virginia Racial Integrity Act violated both the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the 14th Amendment. The decision overturned the ban in Virginia and 15 other states that still prohibited interracial marriage. "Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual," the judgement read, "and cannot be infringed by the state."

Mildred and Richard moved back to Central Point with their three children after the Supreme Court decision. Tragically, Richard was killed by a drunk driver only a few years later in 1975. Mildred remained a quiet but fervent civil rights advocate until her death in 2008. The Lovings' legacy is a powerful one: today, one in six newlyweds in the United States has a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, a fivefold increase from when the Lovings won their court case over fifty years ago. "I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life," Mildred Loving wrote in a statement for the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision. "I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about."

Books and Films About The Loving Family & Interracial Families

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How Mildred and Richard Loving Defeated The Ban on Interracial Marriage

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The Lovings' landmark civil rights case overturned bans against interracial marriage in 16 states. One morning in 1958, the county sheriff and two deputies burst into Mildred and Richard Loving's bedroom in Central Point, Virginia. Their crime? Mildred was black and Richard was white; the couple had broken Virginia's anti-miscegenation law, which criminalized interracial marriages.

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Police Killings Against Native Americans Are Off the Charts and Off the Radar

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Ramona Bennett, a Puyallup elder in her 70's who was gassed, beaten, shot at, and arrested during 1970s protests for Native rights, wants recognition and accountability for Native victims of police violence like Jackie Salyers - and for victims of racial violence who have been been denied public acknowledgement and commemoration for decades.

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Recognizing white privilege begins with truly understanding the term itself.

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Dr. DiAngelo is Affiliate Associate Professor of Education at the University of Washington. Her area of research is in Whiteness Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis. She is a two-time winner of the Student’s Choice Award for Educator of the Year at the University of Washington’s School of Social…

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Time and again we read that white children are not taught about race and racial injustice with the same frequency or at the same early age as their peers of color. Parents of white children often struggle to work conversations about race "naturally" into the flow of the day, believing that race, like sexuality or body development is a topic that necessitates a "big talk" in a time carved out from the flow of normal life. One of the easiest ways to do this is to have books around that prompt conversation and answer questions. Reading "diverse" books and cross-culturally is a great place to start. We also believe that one of the best ways to raise healthy, race-concious white children is to talk to them early and often about racial injustice and racial difference in the course of your daily family life. We recommend the following books for all families, but especially for parents of white children who may be struggling to talk about racial injustice with their kids and teens. We intentionally only featured a handful of "history" books and did not include the many wonderful biographies and histories of movement leaders because, though we carry those books in our store, too often discussions of racial justice and racism focus on the past, on the Civil Rights Movement in isolation or on individual heroes. Change begins now, with white people, in this present moment. We hope this gives you a few ideas for starting places. As always, we encourage you to browse our store in person at 1189 Euclid Ave. NE Atlanta, GA 30307 or buy online at www.charisbooksandmore.com.

Availability: Backordered

Published: Dottir Press - September 4th, 2018

An honest explanation about how power and privilege factor into the lives of white children, at the expense of other groups, and how they can help seek justice. --THE NEW YORK TIMES **A WHITE RAVEN 2019 SELECTION**
NAMED ONE OF SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL'S BEST BOOKS OF 2018

With the ease and simplicity of a nursery rhyme, this lively story delivers an important message of social acceptance to young readers. Themes associated with child development and social harmony, such as friendship, acceptance, self-esteem, and diversity are promoted in simple and straightforward prose.

Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Published: Holiday House - June 1st, 2010

Cocoa, tan, rose, and almond-people come in lots of shades, even in the same family.

Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Published: Dial Books - September 2nd, 1991

Grace loves stories, whether they're from books, movies, or the kind her grandmother tells. So when she gets a chance to play a part in Peter Pan, she knows exactly who she wants to be. Remarkable watercolor illustrations give full expression to Grace's high-flying imagination.

Availability: Backordered

Published: Candlewick - March 22nd, 2016

New York Times best-selling author Robie H. Harris helps preschoolers understand what makes us who we are - from our height to our hair, from the shade of our skin to our eyesight.

Availability: Out of Print

Published: Frances Lincoln Children's Books - October 25th, 2011

Now in a mini edition! The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed on 10th December 1948. It was compiled after World War Two to declare and protect the rights of all people from all countries.

Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Published: Arthur A. Levine Books - January 27th, 2015

For most children these days it would come as a great shock to know that before 1967, they could not marry a person of a race different from their own. That was the year that the Supreme Court issued its decision in Loving v. Virginia.

Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Published: HMH Books for Young Readers - May 3rd, 2004

2005 Coretta Scott King Award Winner
Toni Morrison has collected a treasure chest of archival photographs that depict the historical events surrounding school desegregation. These unforgettable images serve as the inspiration for Ms.

Black Lives Matter covers the shootings that touched off passionate protests, the work of activists to bring about a more just legal system, and the tensions in US society that these events have brought to light.

Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards.

Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Layla, the new girl in first grade, is hesitant to participate in school-day activities because she is afraid that her head scarf makes her look too different from her classmates. But as the day progresses, and the curious first graders learn more about Layla's culture, they help to make her feel more comfortable in her new school.

The Wedding Portrait is an essential book for kids about standing up for what's right. Here are stories of direct action from around the world that are bookended by the author's wedding story. He and his bride led their wedding party to a protest, and were captured in a photo by the local newspaper kissing in front of a line of police just before being arrested.

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Books to Teach White Children and Teens How to Undo Racism and White Supremacy

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Time and again we read that white children are not taught about race and racial injustice with the same frequency or at the same early age as their peers of color.

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[Image description: Illustration from All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold & Suzanne Kaufman. Children of various races and faiths pointing to locations on a world map.] If you're nervous about talking about race with your kids, these books about racial diversity will give you an easy place to start destigmatizing difference & celebrating racial diversity. Bold and *marked books are written or illustrated by #OwnVoices makers of color. Raising Luminaries is free and accessible for readers who can't afford a paywall. Donate or shop using an affiliate link via| Paypal | Venmo | Ko-fi | Buy a t-shirt | Buy a book Anti-Racism For Beginners: Part 1 Acknowledging & Celebrating Racial Diversity Posts may contain affiliate links, which allow me to earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Check out the full affiliate disclosure along with my statement of accountability. If you're into supporting libraries (please do!) more than consumerism, you can also support my work directly:

...

" How do I teach my kids to be anti-racist when I'm still learning myself?"
- Anonymous, Books For Littles Facebook Group (archived)

...

It's normal to get flustered when when our children talk about race. But if we let nervousness keep us silent and still, our fear becomes a weapon.

Growing up, I was told that discrimination would magically disappear if we stop acknowledging racial difference. All people are the same. Skin color doesn't matter. Only bad people are racist. If we are all nice and well-behaved, racism will go away.

This is the fallacy of colorblind ideology. It's a tool to keep us complicit in white supremacy. Don't be a tool.

We must talk about race with young kids. Racism thrives in silence.

When we refuse to talk about race at an early age, children absorb our silence as shame. We're taught that if we have nothing nice to say - say nothing at all. Well - white folks are aggressively silent when it comes to race! Does that mean that being Brown or Black is something to be ashamed of?

Kids pick up when we refuse to acknowledge racial difference - and how we treat people of color. Why are we surprised then, to see nice, well-behaved children reflect unconscious bias against people of color, then grow into adults who blame people of color for violence and harm against them?
(It's your job to be that adult.)
Your child needs at least one adult to speak truth to BS about racial assumptions.

My White mother who openly talked about race from birth - and how society would perceive and treat me because of my multiracial heritage. She raised me to understand that discrimination against me was not my fault. Violence would happen to me because of my race, my gender, my class but it wasn't caused by me - it was caused by white supremacy.

The Mominator refused to let me internalize the idea that I deserved racism. To do that, she first needed to acknowledge my race and the fact that I would have obstacles in life that white kids didn't.

We can help our children understand racism - and empower them to work toward racial equality.

Raise kids of color to feel proud of their culture and their right to self-advocate.

Raise white kids to recognize their duty to stand up against injustice.

But first, you've gotta acknowledge that racial differences - even though they are an imaginary, human-imagined construct, exist as a real thing in our society, with real-life impact on real-life people.

Start by telling our kids that yes - we do see skin color and racial identities.

For folks who were never given space to talk about racism and discrimination as kids (or even racial diversity), it's scary to start. We don't want to say the wrong thing and mess it up.

No worries, we are going to start very gently with non-controversial, easygoing books that just show kids that racial diversity exists. In future collections, we'll get into more emotionally loaded topics - like racial discrimination, racial privilege, colorism, and the subtle tools that uphold white supremacy, such as white fragility and respectability politics.

And this diversity is glorious.

Acknowledge & Celebrating Racial Diversity

From two anonymous BFL members:

"My daughter came home saying she didn't like her brown skin and wanted white skin and 'bright' hair instead. I'm looking for books that reinforce pride in who she is."

"My white daughter said to me the other day, 'I don't like dark skin. ' I ran to the internet to research books like these."

Yikes.

Use these comments as learning opportunities. Read these books to discuss biases they've absorbed during a quiet time home together (story time!) Encourage kids to speak bias aloud so they can hear how ridiculous it sounds, think about where it comes from, and realize how it develops.

When children point out that they like particular skin tones, body shapes, or hair textures more than others - don't shout at them or insist they are wrong. Kids this age can't untangle feelings from fact. Shaming them for a gut reaction is just going to get them to clam up.

Instead, help them untangle bias from fact on their own. Ask why they feel this way. Use in an open, non-judgemental tone. Keep asking questions to unpack these assumptions. We're not here to tell them what to think, we're here to model critical thinking about racial bias moving forward.

Discuss how all bodies are good bodies - how we differ, and what we have in common.

All Are Welcome, *Lovely, We're Different, We're The Same

Acknowledge & Celebrate Cultural Diversity

When we over-simplify racism, we tell kids that racism is simply bias against people based on skin color - it's not.
How do we counter the entrenched dominant narrative's focus on whiteness?
(That's colorism, another problem we can tackle later.)

Racism expands beyond skin color - it's assumptions and discrimination against individuals and groups of people, based on racial identity. This includes not just skin color, but also cultural norms and behavior, language, and other markers of racial and ethnic identity.
*On The Day You Begin, *Where Are You From?, *Alma And How She Got Her Name
White supremacy is assuming that racism would be over if people of color just assimilated and acted more like white people, that assimilation is even a goal for people of color, and that non-white culture is deviant or inferior to whiteness.

Read stories that show how people of color are not monolithic - we're complex individuals who can't be reduced to the caricatures of mainstream media. Our ethnic heritage is something valuable worth exploring, and our ancestors traditions, achievements, and challenges have an impact on who we are today.

But our race and ethnicity is not the only thing that defines us. Show kids how we all have a right to pride in our heritage - just not at the expense of punching down another culture.

Not pictured: *Islandborn is another lovely book, which I recommend with reservations. In 2018, several survivors came forth about Junot Díaz's problematic behavior toward women. One of these reports has been shown to have been overblown - but I'm not comfortable with the way we're dismissing all survivors of his actions because of this. The book itself is great - so I'll let you decide how to move forward with all that on your own.
Support these resources via Paypal | Venmo | Ko-fi | Buy a t-shirt | Buy a book
Explain How Diversity Makes Us Stronger

Having a broad range of experiences to draw from, mindsets to brainstorm, and abilities to solve the problems facing humanity is a very good thing. Human diversity is good for all of humanity and evolution and stuff. I am pretty sure this is SCIENCE.

The idea that winnowing humanity into one make-believe-super-race, or segregating us all into silos based on our racial identity sounds ABSURD. Right? RIGHT?!

Obviously some families are not absorbing the fact that genetic diversity is good for society and the fate of humanity, so we have to make this clear. That whole 'melting pot' assimilation thing our teachers celebrated 20 years ago turned out to be a bad idea.

What we need is more of a chunky stew, with folks proudly retaining and celebrating our individual racial and cultural identities while cognizant of the challenges and discrimination many groups face. These books help kids see how diversity makes us stronger.

Stay Curious, Stand Brave & Talk About Race

Don't stop here. Now that your kids understand that human skin, hair, and all of that stuff comes in a broad change of colors, shapes, and textures - help them see how all people deserve basic human rights, respect, and kindness.

Click here for part 2 of raising Anti-Racist Kids - Children's Books That Teach Kids About Social Power & Paternalism

If you want reminders when I update these resources and publish new podcasts, join the email list.

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Anti-Racism For Kids 101: Starting To Talk About Race - Raising Luminaries

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Image description: Illustration from All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold & Suzanne Kaufman. Children of various races and faiths pointing to locations on a world map.] If you're nervous about talking about race with your kids, these books about racial diversity will give you an easy place to start destigmatizing difference & celebrating racial diversity.

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On May 25, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died after a Minneapolis police officer held him pinned to the ground with a knee on his neck. The murder of George Floyd is horrific, unconscionable, and gut-wrenching, and it's one we've seen before. It's part of a systemic pattern that goes back six summers and six decades, and far beyond.

The news of Floyd's death is the latest in a string of killings, including Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, two other unarmed Black individuals. Their deaths have also drawn public attention and a widespread outcry for justice.

At AF, we condemn discrimination and injustice in all its forms and reaffirm our commitment to being guided by our values, particularly Leading for Racial Equity.

Due to the pandemic, schools are already bracing and preparing for the trauma associated with prolonged distance learning, along with the health and economic instability that has disproportionately impacted communities of color. Now we must grapple with how to best support students and families during periods of personal and collective grief as well as civic unrest. The stakes are higher, particularly for vulnerable student populations-Black, Latinx, low-income, English language learner (ELL) students, and our students with disabilities.

Our communities are struggling to process these tragic events. And, while we cannot gather in our school buildings right now, we can rally in support of our students, families, staff, and communities that are hurting and outraged by these tragedies. We also stand in solidarity with the many AF staff, families, and alumni who participated in protests over the weekend.

We have compiled a list of resources to begin processing trauma with children and to support you in creating space for potentially challenging, but important, conversations. This list is by no means exhaustive and we encourage you to continue the conversation on our Instagram page.

Let's Talk About Race
By: Julius Lester Author, Karen Barbour (Illustrator)
"This wonderful book should be a first choice for all collections and is strongly recommended as a springboard for discussions about differences." -School Library Journal

I Hate That I Have To Tell You (Free e-book)
By: Darnell Lamont Walker

"A tough, emotional task to tackle, Darnell Lamont Walker has answered the call with his new children's book 'I Hate That I Have to Tell You'. A gift to Black Children everywhere, the piece serves as an initiation for recognition and a solemn tribute to those passed."
- Afropunk

Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice
By: Marianne Celano PhD, Marietta Collins PhD, Ann Hazzard PhD, Jennifer Zivion (Illustrator)

Something Happened in Our Town follows two families - one White, one Black - as they discuss a police shooting of a Black man in their community. The story aims to answer children's questions about such traumatic events, and to help children identify and counter racial injustice in their own lives.
Includes an extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers with guidelines for discussing race and racism with children, child-friendly definitions, and sample dialogues.

The Hate U Give
By: Angie Thomas

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

There is also a film adaptation of the book starring Amandla Stenberg.

Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness
By: Anastasia Higginbotham

Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness is a picture book about racism and racial justice, inviting white children and parents to become curious about racism, accept that it's real, and cultivate justice.

"This book does a phenomenal job of explaining how power and privilege affect us from birth, and how we can educate ourselves...Not My Idea is an incredibly important book, one that we should all be using as a catalyst for our anti-racist education."-THE TINY ACTIVIST
Teaching Tolerance
Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

A bonus resource for adults: ​ FACTUALITY is a facilitated dialogue, crash course, and interactive experience, that simulates structural inequality, in America.
Advice from Experts: Additional Reading:
Participants assume the identities of the characters, encountering a series of fact-based advantages & limitations based on the intersection of their race, class, gender, faith, sexual orientation, age, and ability. Facilitations are now available virtually.

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Talking to Kids About Racism & Police Brutality | Achievement First Blog

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On May 25, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died after a Minneapolis police officer held him pinned to the ground with a knee on his neck. The murder of George Floyd is horrific, unconscionable, and gut-wrenching, and it's one we've seen before.

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How should parents talk with their children about all they're seeing and experiencing right now? We get some good advice.

Melissa Giraud, social justice educator, researcher and advocate. Co-founder of EmbraceRace, an organization that provides resources for parents to teach their children about race. (@RaceEmbrace)

Andrew Grant-Thomas, social justice researcher and advocate. Co-founder of EmbraceRace. Former director of programs at the Proteus Fund, a national foundation committed to advancing justice through democracy, human rights, and peace. Deputy director at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University. (@RaceEmbrace)

Christian Cooper, avid bird watcher, comic book writer and biomedical editor for Health Science Communications. New York Audubon Society board member.
Christian Cooper on how he felt during the confrontation and whether he was scared
Christian Cooper: "Any sort of confrontation, of conflict, can be scary. So, yeah, I was scared. I wasn't overwhelmed by being scared. But, yeah, I was certainly scared. But I think one thing I always try to keep in my head, whenever I'm engaged in any sort of conflict, because there's always conflict in our society. You don't want to seek it out, but at the same time, I'm not afraid of it either. You know, there are times when you're going to have to be in conflict with somebody for various reasons. But the thing I always try to keep in my head is, 'The person who remains calm wins.' And that's what I tried to do in that situation. I just tried to remain calm and just keep doing what I was doing."
For white parents, expose kids to diversity
Melissa Giraud: "You start young for one, and you start by exposing your child both, hopefully, in your neighborhood, in your community. ... You know, if you're in a segregated neighborhood, which many of us are, by going out to other communities. To expose them, whether it's after school or at school, to people who are different from them racially and otherwise. And to make sure that your kids understand that you value difference. And you learn from it. And it's important to you that they have diverse friends. So maybe you also can model that if it's possible, again, in your neighborhood, in your part of the country."
On starting the conversation early
Melissa Giraud: "It's multi-factorial. So people often want a recipe and there isn't a recipe. Like if we knew how to solve structural racism, systemic racism, we would have done it, you know? But we do know that the reason it's so hard to solve is it's systemic. And so there are a lot of things to do. So your kid is learning, you know, this cultural soup. They're learning this stuff from very early. And if we could raise kids in a way that would preempt some of these biases by exposing them to a lot, so they're not afraid. Also teaching them about injustice. And about their own privilege."
Here's part of that conversation:
Ishmail Abdus-Saboor: " I look scared as I was telling him these things. And I could equally see the fear on his face as I was sharing with him. And then, you know, out of nowhere, he asks me, 'Does that mean we're going back to being slaves?' I mean, it wasn't like slavery was on his mind. It's not like we just had a conversation about slavery. So the fact that his mind went there and he made that connection, it was startling, jarring and it pierced a sword through my heart."
On how black parents can talk to their kids about race
Melissa Giraud: "If your child is in a targeted group, this is something we think about a lot. ... And it would depend on the conversations that you've had before as well. It's more likely that black families in particular have spoken about racism and have also done sort of the countercultural work of cultural empowerment, of talking about freedom fighters like Christian. Of people who have resisted, have taken risks, really. Because they don't know what the outcome will be, but have been able to stand up and to go on birding. You know, Chris has continued with this thing that he loves to do. ... I would also say that showing the Floyd video, like we haven't shown those to our kids. ... You really want to not traumatize or re-traumatize kids who are already aware that they're in some targeted group."

Andrew Grant-Thomas: "It's important, I think, for kids to know that there are a lot of people who have done the work to get us, you know, to effect the kind of progress that we've made. Clearly, there's a tremendous more amount of work to do. And we have allies in this work and we ourselves can do that work. Whether it's about educating ourselves, about giving money to the organizations that are doing the work, it's about giving our time. It's about how we raise our children. Advocating, you know, being influencers in our own circles, there are a lot of things that we can do."
On the importance of asking questions
Melissa Giraud: "Ask questions. ... You can start with what they know, or what they think, or what's their response to the video that Chris made of Amy Cooper. And talk it through."

Andrew Grant-Thomas: "I think we often don't know, we're not even aware that children are thinking about these things, making sense. That their sensibilities around race are emerging even very, very young, because we don't create the space for them to show us. So this point about asking questions to me is largely about giving them the space to tell you, to share with you what they're thinking again, what sense they're making, what meaning they're making. And for you to have an opportunity to share sort of your experiences, your ideas, your questions, and to provide some context, which, you know, as a four-year-old or a five-year-old, they probably don't have."
On teaching white children to be allies
Christian Cooper: "I think the best thing you could do is teach young white kids to be good allies. To stand up for other people in difficult situations, and that might get us to a better place."

New York Times: " Chris Cooper Is My Brother. Here's Why I Posted His Video." - "I grew up in a family of activists and my parents were teachers. They raised me and my brother, Chris, to never shy from fighting injustice. From police brutality, to the war in Iraq, to climate change, we've lifted our voices in protest."

EmbraceRace: "'How do I make sure I'm not raising the next Amy Cooper?'" - "In our social media age, the figure of the 'entitled White woman' who calls the police on people of color, especially Black people, simply for living their lives has become so common that she has become a meme."

The Atlantic: " Becoming a Parent in the Age of Black Lives Matter" - "In a park about half a mile from my home is a wide-open field of grass, whose thin, uneven blades rise up past my ankles. The playground near the park is, like other playgrounds across the country, no longer open, surrounded by the orange-plastic fencing that has become unsettlingly familiar."

Houston Chronicle: " How to talk with your kids about police, race, protests" - "This week, the world witnessed video of former Houston resident George Floyd, a handcuffed black man, pleading for air as a white police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis. Floyd's subsequent death sparked protests nationwide. Watching the tragic events unfold on TV or social media can take an emotional toll on most adults, but what about children?"

Chalkbeat Colorado: " 'Moments like now are why we teach': Educators tackle tough conversations about race and violence - this time virtually" - "Reading about Brown v. Board of Education over Google Meet. Holding one-on-one Zooms with students struggling with their emotions. Planning lessons on criminal justice reform for the fall - both in-person and remote, in case school buildings don't reopen."

USA Today: " George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. What do we tell our children?" - "Should we tell the children? How? Those are among the many questions parents are asking after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Many white parents wonder whether to talk with their kids at all, while parents of color swallow their grief and fear to have 'the talk' once again."

CNN: " How to talk to your children about protests and racism" - "As cities and social media explode with anger over the killing of yet another black man at the hands of police, worried parents struggle with how to protect their children from seeing the worst of the violence while simultaneously explaining the ravages of racism."

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How To Talk To Your Kids About Race, Racism And Police Violence

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How should parents talk with their children about all they're seeing and experiencing right now? We get some good advice. Melissa Giraud , social justice educator, researcher and advocate. Co-founder of EmbraceRace, an organization that provides resources for parents to teach their children about race. (@RaceEmbrace) Andrew Grant-Thomas , social justice researcher and advocate.

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Parents have a natural instinct to teach and protect their children. Police-involved killings, the shooting of Dallas officers, peaceful protests that turn violent - incidents that are often traumatic for adults - can make these two instincts feel in conflict.

Do we try to explain the strife our child sees on television? Or should we try to shield her from such "grown up" problems?

Howard Stevenson, a clinical psychologist at Penn GSE, studies racial literacy and racial trauma. He works with educators and families to help them understand the emotions that racial incidents can bring about, and how to reduce their negative effects on health and well being.

We asked Stevenson what ideas he had for adults who are searching for a way to discuss racial incidents with their children.
Why is this a conversation parents and guardians need to have?
Stevenson: We can't hide our children from the world. Your child is probably already more aware of race, class, and gender differences than you realize. This can be a time to teach your child about social justice, while also helping process how painful these events can be for them, and for you.
Why talk about social justice?
Stevenson: Adults often have a romanticized view of childhood that ignores how much children actually know. Our research, for example, has found elementary children are acutely aware of racial attitudes. Talking about injustice allows children to make sense of the things that don't go right in the world.

At some point, your child will be treated differently. Or one of her friends will be. They will be exposed to or have a sense of unfairness or injustice that is rightfully upsetting.

Explain that: "I'd like for you to be able to talk about it if someone treats you unfairly because of the color of your skin, or because you are a girl, or because of your religion, or because of a disability."

Right now, as chaotic as things might seem, is a good time to begin having these conversations with your child. It opens the door to you saying, "Here's what we are going to do. Here's how we can face this. You might feel helpless, which is natural and OK. I want to talk to you about this so you can feel strong."
Why talk about race?
Stevenson: We tell our kids not to approach strangers promising them candy. That's a scary situation for a child to imagine. Why do we do it? So children will be prepared for what to do.

Talking about race in America can be scary. People don't want to be seen as a racist or someone trying to start a conflict. But the less prepared we are to think about race and talk about race, the scarier those conversations are when they occur. And children need tools for how to feel and speak about these issues.
Remember "Affection, Correction, and Protection"
Stevenson: Think of this as a three-step plan for conversations about race and social justice:

Embrace your child's difference. Make it clear how much you care about her, how her difference is a gift, not a liability, and how not everyone will view it as a positive.

Correct misperceptions the world has about people who are diverse. We certainly know the adult world is filled with misinformation after a racist incident makes news. Kids hear that too. Help them better understand that no one is less human than another.

Monitor your child's emotions before, during, and after the conversation. Say, "this is an ongoing conversation." You're going to keep talking about these issues and they should too. When another incident makes headlines, follow up.

Reason it out
Stevenson: Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. Rather than simply give them rules ("Don't talk to strangers") give them reasons ("I would be afraid that a stranger would misunderstand you.")

Explain the reasons and emotions of why you are having this talk with a child. Explain that you want them to be able to talk about what makes them afraid, because that will make them strong.

It's OK if they're upset by what's happening in the world. You are too. Any reaction, as long as it's not violent or retaliatory, is OK.
How can you partner with other parents?
Stevenson: Every parent feels isolated having these hard conversations with their children. When you have the chance, practice having a hard conversation with your partner or a friend before you have to have it with your child.

Remember that other parents are struggling in the same ways that you are. Reach out to like-minded parents in your life at church, at your kids' games, waiting to pick them up from camp. What are we trying to say? What do we think they need to hear? What feelings am I having? Can I model how to share those feelings? If we can't communicate that, maybe someone else can. Who is that?
Avoid either/or
Stevenson: There's a reason many simple stories are told in terms of good guys and bad guys: It's easy to grasp. But this either/or construction doesn't help children reflect on the complexities in the world. Everyone has a family and loved ones.

A useful lesson is to teach a child how to refute an over-simplified either/or characterization. For example, why can't it be true that all Black, White, or Brown people act a certain way?

Many instances of injustice happen because a person dehumanizes someone else. It's much easier to be cruel or unfair if you are thinking of someone as not human. Ask your child to think, what if that person were my sibling? What feelings would I have?

Or ask, how would you like to be seen if a stranger comes up to you? That's how I'd like you to think about other people.
Listen
Stevenson: Don't assume you are the only one with wisdom to bring to the conversation. Children teach us too.

The more you listen for what your child already knows, what they are concerned about, what they are afraid of, the more you'll be able to help them speak and feel confidently about matters of social justice. And keep listening, because your child will need you to keep that conversation going.

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Talking to children after racial incidents

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Parents have a natural instinct to teach and protect their children. Police-involved killings, the shooting of Dallas officers, peaceful protests that turn violent - incidents that are often traumatic for adults - can make these two instincts feel in conflict.Do we try to explain the strife our child sees on television?

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Sarah Holcomb believes in the power of stories to inform, humanize, and catalyze change. As a writer for Ashoka Changemakers, Sarah works to amplify the impact of changemakers worldwide who building creative solutions to social problems. From writing magazine articles in Texas to facilitating collaborative photography workshops in India, she has experienced how words and images deeply impact individuals and communities. Sarah holds a degree in Communication, with certificates in Human Needs & Global Resources and Journalism, from Wheaton College (IL).

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An animated guide to changing systems | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker

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Sarah Holcomb believes in the power of stories to inform, humanize, and catalyze change. As a writer for Ashoka Changemakers, Sarah works to amplify the impact of changemakers worldwide who building creative solutions to social problems. From writing magazine articles in Texas to facilitating collaborative photography workshops in India, she has experienced how words and images deeply impact individuals and communities.

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Activity Guides for Changemaking at Home | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker

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Changemaking can start at home. These guides are for young people, educators, and parents to discover the power they have to create positive change, even from the kitchen table.

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Here are two lists of organizations ( Black Led Racial Justice Organizations A Partial Map of Black-Led Black Liberation Organizing ) mostly led by "directly impacted" individuals (people who are most impacted by racist, xenophobic, and violent people/policies) and with missions to directly challenge institutionalized racism and White supremacy.

STEP 2: Explore the distinction between Actors, Allies, and Accomplices.

Keep in mind that as White people, whether as an Actor, Ally or Accomplice, we are still part of the 'oppressor class'. This means we have to be very creative in flipping our privilege to help Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples.

The actions of an Accomplice are meant to directly challenge institutionalized racism, colonization, and White supremacy by blocking or impeding racist people, policies, and structures.

Realizing that our freedoms and liberations are bound together, retreat or withdrawal in the face of oppressive structures is not an option.

Accomplices' actions are informed by, directed and often coordinated with leaders who are Black, Brown First Nations/Indigenous Peoples, and/or People of Color.

Accomplices actively listen with respect, and understand that oppressed people are not monolithic in their tactics and beliefs.

Accomplices aren't motivated by personal guilt or shame. They are not emotionally fragile.

Accomplices build trust through consent and being accountable - this means not acting in isolation where there is no accountability.

The actions of an Actor do not disrupt the status quo, much the same as a spectator at a game. Both have only a nominal effect in shifting an overall outcome. Such systems are challenged when actors shift or couple their actions with those from Allies and/or Accomplices.

The actions of an Actor do not explicitly name or challenge the pillars of White supremacy which is necessary for meaningful progress towards racial justice.

Ally is typically considered a verb - one needs to act as an ally, and can not bestow this title to themselves.

The actions of an Ally have greater likelihood to challenge institutionalized racism, and White supremacy. An Ally is like a disrupter and educator in spaces dominated by Whiteness.

An Ally might find themselves at a social gathering in which something inappropriate is being talked about. Instead of allowing that space to incubate Whiteness, the Ally wisely disrupts the conversation, and takes the opportunity to educate those present.

Being an Ally is not an invitation to be in Black and Brown spaces to gain brownie points, lead, take over, or explain.

Allies constantly educate themselves, and do not take breaks.

Commit to taking 3 actions in the next month, and share these with a trusted friend, colleague, or family member in order to increase your accountability to follow through on your commitment. Can you take at least one action in the next two weeks in the Ally or Accomplice category?

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Here are two lists of organizations ( Black Led Racial Justice Organizations A Partial Map of Black-Led Black Liberation Organizing ) mostly led by "directly impacted" individuals (people who are most impacted by racist, xenophobic, and violent people/policies) and with missions to directly challenge institutionalized racism and White supremacy.

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America's kids are watching.

They've seen the killing of George Floyd and other scenes of police violence against black people play across their TV screens again and again, as Kelly Glass reports at Vox. They see the thousands of people in the streets every day protesting that violence - sometimes, the kids are part of the protests.

And they see how their parents address racism in their own lives - or how they don't at all. As Howard Stevenson, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, told Vox, "you're always communicating about race, whether you talk about it or not."

Stevenson has spent 30 years studying racial socialization, or the way that parents raise their kids to think about race. And he works with kids of all races on how they respond to "racially stressful encounters," which he defines as "any moment in which someone is stressed and overwhelmed thinking about it, facing it, or thinking about it in the past." That could mean a moment when a child is called a racial slur, makes a racist comment but then regrets it, or witnesses someone else say something racist and fails to speak up about it.

For Stevenson, there's a clear strategy that can help kids navigate those moments and speak their mind - whether it's to call out racism or apologize for saying something bigoted. A father himself, he acknowledges that black kids and other kids of color shouldn't have to be trained to respond to racism - he's said to his kids, "it's a shame that Daddy even has to tell you about this."

But, he told Vox, research shows that kids are treated differently based on skin color as young as preschool. For many black parents, teaching kids about those differences is a way of protecting them. But too often, white parents are afraid to bring up the subject, sometimes because they're not comfortable with it themselves.

Today, Stevenson says, the lessons about racism in American society couldn't be clearer - just turn on the TV. He spoke with Vox, in a conversation that's been condensed and edited, about how parents can teach those lessons to their children, and themselves. After all, Stevenson points out, when navigating a racist world, it's not enough to simply be a good person. You have to actually understand how racism works and how to fight it. And teaching that, he says, "is the role of parenting."

Anna North

What are the kinds of techniques that you've studied in terms of teaching racial literacy to kids and how to respond to moments of racism and injustice?

Howard Stevenson

People, children and adults, sometimes see a racial moment as threatening. If the young person or an adult sees the racial moment as threatening, they're more likely to overreact in a particular way. And so one of the strategies is around noticing - if you notice that you're actually overreacting or having certain expressions in your body, thoughts, and feelings, you can manage it.

We teach kids especially how to use a mindfulness approach we call calculate, locate, communicate, breathe, and exhale. Calculate what feelings are you having, and then on a scale of one to ten, how intense are they? So somebody could be called a slur or say something they regret, and they feel scared at the level of nine. And they're also angry at themselves at the level of six. But they're also sad because the person they said it to might have been somebody that they like and care about. All those feelings are important.

Locate is: To what degree can you locate those feelings in your body? And because the body kind of keeps the score of your emotions, if you can figure that out, you're more likely to be able to relax that part of your body, which will keep you from more anxiety.

Communicate is: What self-talk are you noticing? Are you saying anything to yourself? "Man, that was an idiot thing to say. Oh, my gosh, they're gonna think I'm a racist." Or whatimages come to your mind - do you see any pictures of people or situations while you're going through the encounter? We can teach people those strategies followed by breathing and exhaling. And we know that it helps many people bring their brain from sort of locking down to being much more open to seeing around themselves, to hearing better, to listening better, and that's where the healthy decision-making comes in.

The opposite of that is that people are overwhelmed so much that they try to avoid a racial moment. And if they are able to avoid it, the stress will go down, but they're not any more competent for the next time they need to speak up or have a conversation.

Anna North

It sounds like these techniques are applicable both if someone experiences racism and if someone perpetrates racism or says something that might be racist. Is that right?

Howard Stevenson

Yes. As well as somebody who is watching and freezes and doesn't know what to do.

Anna North

So how do parents and educators start teaching kids these steps? And at what age do you recommend starting?

Howard Stevenson

I've always recommended starting very early. Many families believe, "I don't want to burden my kids with racial stuff because it's so heavy. It might damage their childhood." But we do share things with our kids early that are troublesome, perhaps scary, but it doesn't throw off their childhood or lead them to nightmares.

And so what we've figured out mostly is that parents are more the issue than the children. In families of color, parents having had very negative racial experiences of discrimination in childhood could prompt them to hesitate to talk about these issues. Whereas white families who may not have had experience with race or racism at all are more fearful of being thought of as racist, or their children thought of as racist.

But you're always communicating about race, whether you talk about it or not. Children at young ages are pretty adept at reading your nonverbal language, and being afraid to talk about race is quite observable. Children, over time, see it over and over and over again. And so they're learning about what their parents won't do in many respects more than what to do, if you're not talking about it.

So one good recommendation is, if you're going to have a conversation about race, talk about what's going on with you, as a parent. What feelings do you have, including the fear of talking about it? And what is that fear coming from?

Anna North

How do you recommend that parents bring up the kinds of racial moments that you were talking about? How do you define that for kids?

Howard Stevenson

There are times when children will have feelings of what happens to them or other friends where they feel it was wrong or an injustice. That sense of injustice, kids can feel that something's not right. That actually is a great place to start. The parents could say, did you ever have a situation where something was done to you or someone that you felt was wrong? How do you feel about it? Is there something you wanted to say when it happened, but you didn't because you were afraid?

But we know children are treated differently by race in the larger world as early as preschool. We know that children very early on can understand the differences in categories around skin color. And in the way that you can socialize kids that skin color difference is a scary thing to talk about, you can also socialize kids that it is a wonderful area to talk about by how explicit you can be in sharing.

Anna North

Can you talk me through an example of the kind of racial moment that you train kids to respond to?

Howard Stevenson

Well, students have told me many times, young people, as young as fifth grade, that they can feel hurt and somebody uses a racial slur or gendered slur. And they're put in a bind in that moment, especially if it happens in front of other students, and just like adults will walk away, if they haven't said anything or done anything, to protect themselves, to carry that burden with them. And with that comes a host of, you know, "What is it about me that could have brought this about?"

So calculating your feelings is a way to sort of say, "Well, I'm feeling hurt and ashamed. But I'm incredibly mad." We're asking what do you notice in your body and your thoughts and feelings. Students can be able to say, "Wow, this is larger than just what the person said to me and larger than me not speaking back up." And then we can go through a set of rituals like, "What would you have wanted to say?" Say nobody's going to arrest you, nobody's going to kick you out of class. If you said you were angry at a nine, what would you want to say that matches that anger?

And so we can practice with them several options of things they really want to say that match that feeling, even if it seems rude, to eventually come up with something that wouldn't get them in trouble that they could say the next time - that would also mean they wouldn't be quiet, because that swallowing is something that haunts them. They're tired of being perceived as weak, and tired of other people thinking that they can pick on them.

Anna North

Talk to me a little bit about the benefits of these strategies for kids. You mentioned that there's a harm that kids carry with them if they are quiet when they want to speak up - how do these strategies help?

Howard Stevenson

If you're mad that you didn't speak up in a situation - let's say it happens in the classroom - sometimes that classroom becomes a trigger for you. You're less likely to focus in the classroom. It might affect your persistence in performance and grades.

[And] we know these kinds of microaggressions can affect your health, including your sleep. And so another benefit is you're going to be less likely to hold in and keep grudges because of unresolved moments.

Anna North

How do the strategies you teach differ forblack kids and other kids of color versus for white kids who don't experience racism but who might be perpetrating or being a bystander to racism?

Howard Stevenson

There's a dance to racism in our society, a dance in learning about the politics of race. So many people ask me, what do you do for white people who don't know about race because they haven't been exposed? I say, if you take an astronomy class and you find out about black holes, you may be surprised - "I didn't know that, now I do." That's not knowing. But if you grew up in a culture where race has been around everywhere, like if you have a telephone, or a TV, or you watch cartoons, or any imagery in American society, you're exposed to race and racism. So the real question is, how is it that you were trained to not know or trained to not see?

And that's the place where you can begin. How do I stop that dance that I usually do around not seeing or not wanting to see?

When studies have interviewed white parents about race, they are much more likely to be grateful that their children don't talk about it out of fear that talking about it could either hurt their kids or other people in some way. So it's a protective notion. Whereas families of color are more likely to see bringing up race as healthier, and protective.

Anna North

This is a hard question, or maybe it's just hard for me to articulate. But you've outlined clear benefits for kids of color if they get training in how to respond in the kinds of racial moments you identify. But how do you think about the fact that they shouldn't have to experience these moments at all? It seems like it's a problem that they have to be trained for this, you know?

Howard Stevenson

I've had to say to my kids, "It's a shame that Daddy even has to tell you about this, that you live in a world that doesn't see you as as human as other people. And I do it out of your protection. But I don't want you for a second to believe that there's something wrong with you. It's just the way other people see your humanity. That's not how Daddy sees it."

If there wasn't so much historical evidence of that dehumanization that gets repeated and retriggered all the time, then you could make the argument that maybe I don't have to have this conversation. But if you do, then you must say, I'm sorry that we even have to.

But [parents can tell kids] it's not about you. It's about [other people's] lens and their narrow narrative about you. And you can lead to a lot from there about white supremacy and what that means.

Anna North

How should parents and educators be thinking about this particular moment in history? And how should they be talking to kids about what's going on now?

Howard Stevenson

You can watch any bit of television, just watch the news and say, what's not cool about this picture? I don't know if there's ever been a time when these lessons on racism and discrimination have been so stark, in the last 20 years, as we've seen in the last four. So the lessons should be easier to pull off.

For me, these are issues of morality - but I think morality is not the best way to go these days. I don't think morality makes us competent necessarily in how to see these issues or how to deal with them. If you say, "We have an opening for an algebra teacher at our school," and I say, "I have a friend who's morally of high caliber and standing - they have trouble with math, however," most people wouldn't entertain their CV. But we think that way when it comes to racial issues.

As a parent, I would say, I don't want somebody who's good but incompetent in the world doing their work. What if my child were seen as somebody moral but incompetent at navigating racial moments?

Parents of color know, "I want my child to be prepared for these racial encounters that are stressful because it could affect their well-being and their health and their self-esteem." But white parents might say, "I want my child to be skilled at navigating racial encounters too. Why would I want a child who avoids these issues and then in some respects is incapacitated? How can I help my child speak up on behalf of his friend? If his friend of color goes through stuff that affects my child, that's still important."

I think it's hilarious that so many politicians have gone back into their college careers and found that they dressed up in blackface. Some people are really good people, and they're really ashamed of having done it. But you could argue that they never got a lesson about how you see people different than them. That is the role of parenting.

[Parents can say], "the reason why I wouldn't ever want you to do this - and I want to show you the governor who did this - not just because it's going to be embarrassing to me, and not just because it's going to be embarrassing for you, but because it goes against your values for the kids that you've spent time playing with. It goes against the values of the people you're going to eventually represent if you become a congressman. It's dehumanizing."

And that starts early.

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Two mothers talk to their teenage sons about race and police brutality in the United States.

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How to talk to kids about racism, explained by a psychologist

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America's kids are watching. They've seen the killing of George Floyd and other scenes of police violence against black people play across their TV screens again and again, as Kelly Glass reports at Vox. They see the thousands of people in the streets every day protesting that violence - sometimes, the kids are part of the protests.

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If you, like many of us, are finding it hard to articulate how to discuss issues of racism, injustice, discrimination and privilege, we'd like to encourage you to take some time to learn and listen.

Take some time to watch some (or all) of these important documentaries about race, racial prejudices and privilege within our society.

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10 Documentaries To Watch About Race Instead Of Asking A Person Of Colour To Explain Things For You

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If you, like many of us, are finding it hard to articulate how to discuss issues of racism, injustice, discrimination and privilege, we'd like to encourage you to take some time to learn and listen. Take some time to watch some (or all) of these important documentaries about race, racial prejudices and privilege within our society.

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Sesame Street explain Black Lives Matter

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A conversation with President Obama: Reimagining Policing in the Wake of Continued Police Violence

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Excellent James Baldwin speech in Berkeley (1979)

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"I have a dream

that my four little children will one day live in a nation

where they will not be judged by the color of their skin

but by the content of their character."

~ Dr. Martin Luther King

Sadly, the above part of Martin Luther King's famous dream still hasn't come true and racism is very much alive and well in America (as well as in many other parts of the world).

Talking to our children about racism and discrimination is as necessary as it is uncomfortable for most parents (especially white parents). Necessary because racial bias in children starts as early as from the age of 3; uncomfortable because it means we have to address our own racial biases, too.

These multicultural children's books are a selection of picture books and novels about the past and the present. They can be helpful for talking to your children (Elementary to High School) about racism and its devastating consequences.

37 Children's Books to help talk about Racism & Discrimination

Elementary School

In 1960 a judge orders little Ruby to attend first grade at William Frantz Elementary, an all-white school in New Orleans. Surrounded by Federal Marshalls, Ruby faces angry mobs of segregationists as she walks through the school door on her first day (and many after). Being the only student in her class she is taught by a supportive teacher. With simple text and engaging watercolour illustrations, The Story of Ruby Bridges is a moving picture book about a little girl's calm perseverance and gracious forgiveness in the ugly face of hate and racism. ~ African - Elementary School

More books about amazing girls: 26 Multicultural Picture Books about Inspiring Women & Girls

"I am a story. So are you. So is everyone." In this acclaimed book, Julius Lestershares his own story as he explores what makes each of us special. He emphasizes that race is just one of many facets of a person. With stunning illustrations and engaging text, Let's Talk About Race will appeal to young readers and is sure to spark further conversations about race and racism. ~ Diverse - Elementary School

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation
by Duncan Tonatiuh

In 1944 Sylvia Mendez, an American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, was denied enrollment to a "Whites only" school. With the help of the Hispanic community, her parents filed and won a lawsuit in federal district court. Their success eventually led to the end of segregated education in California. Separate Is Never Equal tells Sylvia's story in a touching and accessible way. ~ Hispanic - Elementary School

More books about inspiring women: 32 Multicultural Picture Books About Strong Female Role Models

Desmond's pride and joy about his new bicycle turn to hurt and anger when some boys shout a very mean word at him. Responding with an insult, Desmond soon realises that fighting mean with mean doesn't make him feel any better. Based on Desmond Tutu's childhood experiences, Desmond and the Very Mean Word is a touching story about compassion and forgiveness. ~ African - Elementary School

More books by Desmond Tutu: 9 Children's Books about Nelson Mandela & Desmond Tutu

Based on true events, White Flour tells the story of a whimsical and effective response to a Ku Klux Klan rally in Knoxville, Tennessee in May 2007. The Coup Clutz Clowns trumped hatred with humour by 'misunderstanding' the racist's "White Power" shouts. With vivid rhymes and colourful illustrations, this picture book provides a great example of a non-violent response to racist aggression. ~ Diverse - Elementary School

Slowly making her way up a hill to the polling station to vote, 100-year-old Lillian remembers her family's tumultuous voting history: Her great-grandfather voting for the first time, her parents trying to register to vote, herself marching in a protest from Selma to Montgomery. Beautifully illustrated Lillian's Right to Vote is a moving and lyrical account of black people's fight for voting rights. ~ African - Elementary School

More books about Black History: 8 New Picture Book Biographies for Black History Month

When Ruth and her family go on a trip in their new car in the early 1950's, they soon realize that black travellers aren't welcome everywhere. Many hotels and gas stations refuse service to the family. Eventually, someone gives them a book that listsall the places that welcome black travellers. The Green Book is a poignant story about racial discrimination in the Jim Crow era, brought to life by expressive watercolour illustrations. ~ African - Elementary School

"It was February 1, 1960. / They didn't need menus. / Their order was simple. / A doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side." Sit-In celebrates an important milestone in the fight for racial equality: The momentous Woolworth lunch counter sit-in, staged by four young college students. With dynamic illustrations and poetic text, this compelling picture book is a great starting point for conversations about racism and discrimination. ~ African - Elementary School

More books about Black History: 21 Picture Books for Black History Month

The Other Side tells the touching story of a friendship during segregation. Clover's mom warns her that it is dangerous to cross the fence between their side of town and the white side where Anna lives. But the two girls meet across the fence and strike up a friendship anyway. Expressive watercolour illustrations complement the lyrical narrative perfectly. ~ African - Elementary School

More books about friendship: 18 Multicultural Children's Books about Friendship

Stunningly illustrated Shining Star tells the rags-to-riches story of Anna May Wong, a Chinese American Hollywood star in the 1930s and 1940s. Wong confronted racial discrimination and stereotypes and broke new ground for future generations of Asian American actors. ~ Asian - Elementary School

More books with Asian & Asian American main characters: 30 Asian & Asian American Children's Books

We adore spunky Grace and her love for re-enacting stories, be they from books, movies, or her grandmother. But when she wants to play the lead role in a Peter Pan school play, her classmates tell her she cannot do it because she is a girl and because she is black. With the support of her family and after seeing a black ballerina perform, Grace remains determined to win the lead role. With expressive watercolour illustrations and a strong main character, Amazing Grace is an engaging story about challenging gender and racial stereotypes. ~ African - Elementary School

Find the whole Grace series here: 40+ Multicultural Book Series for Girls & Boys

Little Hector loves playing soccer and dreams of playing on a real pitch with the white boys. When apartheid slowly starts to crumble and the national soccer team wins the African Cup of Nations, Hector's dream suddenly doesn't seem so impossible anymore. With simple text and expressive pencil and acrylic illustrations, The Soccer Fence tells a story of hope and change. Includes a (quite advanced) timeline of historical events. ~ African - Elementary School

More books set in South Africa: 23 Children's Books set in South Africa

Because he was white and she was African American and Cherokee, Mildred and Richard Loving were not permitted to marry under Virginia's law in 1958. The couple got married in Washington, D.C., but when they moved back to Virginia, they were arrested. Mildred and Richard fought the discriminatory law all the way to the Supreme Court, and won! The Case for Loving is an inspiring story about a couple who changed the world for interracial couples and opened people's eyes to the unfairness of any law that restricts whom you are allowed to love. ~ African - Elementary School

For a more in-depth review of this book, go to: Multicultural Book of the Month: The Case for Loving

On a magical bus ride to school, Marcie learns about the story of Rosa Parks, the mother of the Civil Rights movement. She even meets Rosa Parks and some other distinguished guests at a birthday party. Illustrated with colourful folk-art style paintings, If a Bus Could Talk tells Rosa Park's story in an unusual and bold way. ~ African - Elementary School

More books by Faith Ringgold: Author Spotlight: Faith Ringgold

More books about Black History: 21 Picture Books for Black History Month

Strong-willed Olemaun wants to learn to read and persuades her father to let her go to residential school, despite his concerns. At the Catholic-run school, the Inuit girl is stripped of her Native identity, humiliated and treated harshly. Remaining undaunted, Olemaun draws the attention of one nun who tries to break her spirit. When I was Eight is a stunning picture book adaptation of the bestselling memoir , a story about discrimination and the power of the human spirit. ~ Diverse - Elementary School

More books about Native Americans: 32 Native American Children's Books

only performing in shows with unknown black singers and actors. ~ Harlem's Little Blackbird tells the story of Florence Mills, an African American singer born in 1896. In poetic text, complemented by stunning paper-cut illustrations, the story follows Mills from singing with her mother to breaking into the musical world despite facing racial discrimination. Mills declined the role of a lifetime and chose to support all-black musicals instead by African - Elementary School

More books about the Harlem Renaissance: 15 Children's Books about the Harlem Renaissance

The captivating portrait on the cover draws the young reader right into this award-winning picture book biography. In poignant free verse and with the most stunning, powerful paintings, Nelson Mandela tells the story of Mandela's life, from his tribal childhood to the triumph of his election as President of South Africa. ~ African - Elementary School

More books about Nelson Mandela: 9 Children's Books about Nelson Mandela & Desmond Tutu

After moving to a new place, Bilal and his sister Ayesha start at a new school where they are the only Muslims. When Bilal sees his sister bullied on their first day, he worries about being teased himself and decides not to let his classmates know that he is Muslim. My Name Is Bilal is a heartfelt story about a young boy struggling with his identity and a great starting point for discussions about prejudice and discrimination. ~ Asian - Elementary School, Middle School

This striking picture book biography chronicles the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, one of the civil rights movement's most inspiring leaders. With free-verse text, coupled with spirituals and quotes, and with stunning quilt-like collages, Voice of Freedom makes this amazing woman's life story accessible to young readers. ~ African - Elementary School, Middle School

For a more in-depth review of this book, go to: Multicultural Book of the Month: Voice of Freedom

With stirring poetry and striking illustrations We Troubled The Waters gives a voice to the everyday and extraordinary people who fought for racial justice during the civil rights movement. From the "Cleaning Gal" and the "Garbage Boys" to Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks, this heartfelt book captures the spirit of the civil rights movement beautifully. ~ African - Middle School

More poetry books: 26 Multicultural Poetry Books for Children

Middle School

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry tells of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. This classic masterpiece focuses on Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, and learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect. ~ African - Middle School

More award-winning books about Black History: 21 Award-winning Children's Books for Black History Month

Hidden Figures tells the amazing true story of four African American female mathematicians at NASA. Despite facing gender discrimination and racial prejudice, these "human computers" helped achieve some of the greatest moments in the US's space program by calculating the numbers that would launch rockets into space. ~ African - Middle School

More books about science: 50+ Multicultural STEAM Books for Children

One night 11-year-old Stella and her brother witness a Ku Klux Klan meeting in the North Carolina woods. For the African American siblings, living in the South is a dangerous, scary and often humiliating experience. Stella by Starlight is a gripping and realistic portrayal of life in the segregated South during the Great Depression. ~ African - Middle School

More middle grade novels about Black History: African American Historical Fiction for Middle School

Brown Girl Dreaming is an intimate and moving account of the author's childhood as an African American in the 1960's and 1970's. Growing up in South Carolina and New York, she becomes increasingly aware of the Civil Rights Movement. In poetic language full of imagery this award-winning book gives a glimpse into a child's soul and her journey of self-discovery. ~ African - Middle School

More middle-grade novels: 21 Multicultural Middle-Grade Novels for Summer Reading // African - Middle School

Junior, an aspiring cartoonist, leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school. Based on the author's own experiences, The Absolute True Diary of a Part-time Indian is a heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written novel about the contemporary adolescence of a Native American boy. Illustrated with poignant cartoon-style drawings. ~ Diverse - Middle School, High School

Adapted from Nelson Mandela's memoir Long Road to Freedom, this is his authorized graphic biography. Nelson Mandela tells his life story in dramatic pictures, from his childhood to his years as the first black president of South Africa. The comic book form together with new interviews, firsthand accounts, and archival material makes the story of Mandela's life and work accessible for teenagers. ~ African - Middle School, High School

In 1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was lynched for supposedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The brutality of his murder, the open-casket funeral and the acquittal of the men tried for the crime drew wide media attention. Award-winning A Wreath for Emmett Till is a moving and chilling poem about the boy whose fate helped spark the civil rights movement. ~ African - Middle School, High School

More award-winning books about Black History: 21 Award-winning Children's Books for Black History Month

High School

16-year-old Starr is balancing life between her poor neighbourhood and her fancy suburban school. When her unarmed best friend Khalil is killed at the hands of a police officer, his death is making national headlines and protesters are taking to the streets. As the only person who knows what really happened that night, Starr is caught between threats from the police and the local drug lord, protecting her community and risking her own life. No.1 New York Times Bestseller The Hate You Give is a powerful and heart-wrenching novel about police brutality and systemic racism. ~ African - High School

Co-written by Malcolm X's daughter, Xfollows the formative years of one of the most powerful leaders in African American history. From his father being murdered, his mother being taken away, and himself being placed in foster care, to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would guide him onto a new path, X is an award-winning novel about a man who shook the world. ~ African - High School

More award-winning books about Black History: 21 Award-winning Children's Books for Black History Month

Due to be released in October, this stunning debut is another novel about racial prejudice and police brutality. Top of his class and set for the Ivy League, Justyce writes a journal to Martin Lurther King Jr in an attempt to make sense of a police encounter in which he was treated roughly and unfairly. When he is caught up in another police encounter in which shots are fired, Justyce finds himself under attack in the media. Dear Martin is a compelling must-read that tackles the myth that if you don't do anything wrong you have nothing to fear from the police. ~ African - High School

Indian American Samar's mother has always kept her away from her old-fashioned family. But shortly after 9/11, her uncle shows up, wanting to reconcile and teach the teenager about her Sikh heritage. When some boys attack her uncle, shouting "Go home Osama!" Samar realizes how dangerous ignorance is. Shine, Coconut Moon is a poignant story about identity, prejudice, and difference. ~ Asian - High School

"Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I'll call it what the lady prosecutor called me ... Monster." Multi-award-winning Monster chronicles the unfair court proceedings for Steve Harmon, a teenager accused of murder and robbery. Written as a screenplay playing in Steve's imagination, coupled with his journal entries, this heart-wrenching novel highlights the racism deeply ingrained in the American justice system. ~ African - High School

Also available as a stunning black-and-white graphic novel adaptation: Monster: A Graphic Novel

"When it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'"On March 2, 1955, Claudette Colvin refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be nine months later, the teenager found herself shunned. Undaunted, a year later she became a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery. Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Twice towards Justice is an in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure. ~ African - High School

When black teenager Tariq Johnson is fatally shot by a white man, his whole community is turned upside down. While the truth is obscured by new twists every day, Tariq's family is trying to cope with their loss. How It Went Down is a compelling and timely novel about racial prejudice and its devastating consequences. ~ African - High School

Set in Australia, this timely new release tells the story of Michael who attends anti-immigration protests with his parents, and Mina, a refugee from Afghanistan, who is on the other side of the protest lines. When Mina starts at Michael's school, the two teenagers enter into an unlikely relationship. With increasing discrimination against immigrants, Michael and Mina have to face difficult decisions. The Lines We Cross is a poignant and thought-provoking Romeo-and-Juliet story about prejudice and discrimination against Muslim immigrants. ~ Asian - High School

More books about immigration: 30 Multicultural Picture Books about Immigration

When 16-year-old Rashad goes to buy a packet of chips at the corner shop, he finds himself mistaken for a shoplifter and beaten up by the police. Soon the incident is all over the news and simmering racial tensions get to the point of explosion. Written by two award-winning authors and alternating between the perspectives of one black and one white teenager, All American Boys is a moving novel about privilege and racism that every teenager should read. ~ African - High School

March: Book Three is the stunning conclusion of the award-winning trilogy by congressman and civil rights key figure John Lewis. Starting in 1963, the book describes the continuing struggle for justice. With an unpredictable new president and fractures within the movement deepening, 25-year-old John Lewis risks everything in a historic showdown high above the Alabama river, in a town called Selma. With expressive black-and-white illustrations, this unique graphic novel makes the history of the civil rights movement accessible to teenagers. ~ African - High School

Complete trilogy: March (Trilogy Slipcase Set)

Also featured here: The 10 Best Multicultural Young Adult Novels of 2016

*You can buy any of the books on this site from Amazon USA, CAN or UK by clicking on the book titles or images*

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37 Children's Books to help talk about Racism & Discrimination

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"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

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Implicit Bias -- how it effects us and how we push through | Melanie Funchess | TEDxFlourCity

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Let's get to the root of racial injustice | Megan Ming Francis | TEDxRainier

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You walk into a store and you can feel the stares on your back. You look down at your child and you know they are looking at him. Their eyes are asking questions that their mouths are too shy to speak.

And then they do ..."Is he your son?" ...

As an African-American woman married to a white man, Ebony and her husband Michael have made it their mission to teach their four-year-old son, Max, about emotions and inclusion. " Having a biracial son puts me in a tricky spot," says Ebony. "Some people in the world will see my son as black and make negative assumptions about him. Some people in the world will see my son as having it easy because he's light-skinned. And others know the truth, he will have to balance on this weird line of trying to fit into both worlds as he grows up."

Max shares his views on skin color below:

" Diversity is beautiful and inclusion starts with our family," shares Ebony. "We knew one day our son would encounter the question, 'So, your mom is black and your dad is white?' and we wanted him to be prepared. I want him to be proud to have a black mom and a white dad. I want him to have no questions about why he was made this way. And most importantly, I want him to have the language, tools and the heart to stand up for diversity and inclusion when he faces it in the world."

For Ebony, those tools start with teaching about emotions. " It's my job as a parent to make all emotions safe, even the hard ones ... especially the hard ones. If you're scared to feel mad, you will suppress it, and suppressing emotion can lead to hate, not only towards yourself but towards others who are different from you."

Ebony shares that teaching children about emotions lays a foundation for building skills of social justice. "It starts at the youngest of ages, and it begins with teaching our children the power of their emotions, words, and actions. When children learn to speak and feel their emotions confidently, they will be able to do it on behalf of others, too. Giving our kids a voice is what we are doing when we allow them to feel, and when we teach them what to do with those feelings."

When it comes to celebrating differences, Ebony says that her family started at age one. "We started basic," she explains. "I would say we really started diving in around 2 years old and now, at 4 years old, we have added more challenging topics."

Ebony shares that she and Michael have goals for Max to see all people, regardless of gender, race, color, religion, ability, and preferences. "One of my biggest hopes for my son is that he will be anti-hate and lead the pack when it comes to inclusion! We have to be intentional if we want our kids to be anti-hate, anti-racist, and to lead with love. I think a lot of people think that if they aren't teaching their kids to racist that it automatically will make them -racist. But this isn't necessarily the truth."

She continues, "I want my son to be an ally for anyone in a marginalized community. To be an ally means to be a helper and, to be a helper, is a skill to learn. But it starts now, while he is young. It has to be taught by us because we can't count on the world to do that."

Ebony encourages other families to have these discussions, too. While she admits that many parents may feel unsure of how to approach these topics with their children, Ebony stresses that the importance lies in starting. "Just start wherever you are. Starting small is better than not starting at all. A lot of our life is dictated by saying or doing the right thing. But this conversation can't afford to wait and as parents we have the skills inside of us not only to teach but learn alongside our children!"

She shares that crafts are a fun way for families to discuss differences with their young children. "This is great if you fear not having the right words. We would get construction paper - tan, brown, dark brown - and start making faces - different skin colors, different hair, different nose sizes, lip sizes, eye shapes, etc. I would say, 'let's make mommy, and daddy, and you' and then we would talk about how we are all beautiful in spite of our differences." Ebony said that using crafts as a gateway to discuss differences served as a foundation for more serious topics as Max grew older.

Another great tool for parents is simply sharing facts. "I taught my son WHY my skin color was darker and we talked about melanin. He loved learning more. It doesn't have to be a stuffy conversation and we don't have to assume they don't get it. When kids know the behind something, it helps them understand. And understanding is half of the battle when it comes to why people won't include a group different than them."

Becoming intentional with books during storytime also supported Ebony's family values. "We have books with main characters in wheelchairs, with one leg, with autism ... main characters that don't speak English, who can't see, who wear Hijabs, so on and so forth. We also read books to him and listen to music in other languages. The point isn't to understand the book or song! It's important that he sees ME and him struggle with another language. If he ever meets a child or adult who struggles with English, he will be understanding because he gets it! He simply says, 'Some people speak different languages and that's ok!'"

Children's books that Ebony suggests include:

"Because of the diverse books we read, it opens up the conversations I can have with him about how he can engage with kids different from him. We've talked about how he can play with a kid who can't hear. We've taught him how to say things like, 'will you play with me?' in sign language. Our hope is that anyone he encounters will feel included."

Ebony proposes to parents, "If you are really stuck, reach out to a person of color for guidance. You may feel weird, but they will feel loved and seen and so happy that you want to learn more! Our kids can be the generation to change the hate in this world, and it starts with us educating them."

Becoming mindful and intentional in our own homes is where it starts. Realizing that although the news stories seem , away from us, they are really much closer to our homes and hearts. "These aren't just news stories. These are people's lives. My children.Your children."

Ebony shares, "Hearing news such as Ahmaud Arbery's shooting makes me realize that it's no longer good enough to be NOT racist. We need more people stepping up and being ANTI-RACIST. That means looking into how we can do more, learn more, and teach more. Being sad when tragedies happen isn't enough anymore, we need people who are boldly speaking out against it, voting for people with a plan to stop it, calling police departments to demand change (like the use of body cams) ... things like that."

More than anything, these times show Ebony the importance of the work she is doing within her home. "It shows me that I need to continue the work I'm doing with my son to make sure he is taught to stand up and speak up. It shows me that I need to educate my white friends about how they can help me and people of color feel safe in this country. Maybe they can't change the world? But they can start with their kids. And our kids WILL change the world."
_____________ *** Ebony shares that she is in the process of writing her own children's book that highlights diversity. She also holds virtual story readings every Saturday at 10 am EST where she shares a book and a live kid-friendly awareness talk with her co-host Max. Generation Mindful creates educational tools, toys, and programs that nurture emotional intelligence through play and positive discipline. Join us and receive joy in your inbox each week.

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Why This Four-Year-Old's Video On Skin Color Needs To Go Viral

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You walk into a store and you can feel the stares on your back. You look down at your child and you know they are looking at him. Their eyes are asking questions that their mouths are too shy to speak. And then they do ..."Is he your son?" ...

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Not all parents have the time to do what Innosanto Nagara did.

For those who can't, we've compiled a list - with help from Teaching for Change - of books that frame big issues through a lens children can understand.

A Is for Activist
by Innosanto Nagara

Every letter is the definition of a different social movement. For F - kids learn about Feminism, when we get to G - kids learn about the meaning of grassroots organizing and why it's important.

This beautifully illustrated ABC book uses rhyming and alliteration to get your little reader excited about social change. If your child loves this work they may enjoy the author's new work My Night at the Planetarium, which illustrates the important role the arts play in resistance.

One of a Kind, Like Me / Único Como Yo
by Laurin Mayeno, Robert Liu-trujillo and Teresa Mlawer

A heartwarming story of a young boy, Danny, who fights gender stereotypes by dressing up as a princess for the school parade. The author, Laurin Mayeno, was inspired to write this from her own experience with her son Danny. "Sometimes as parents we must unlearn things we learned growing up," says Mayeno. The book is bilingual, in English and Spanish, and discusses gender expression from a child's point of view.

Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family's Journey
by Margriet Ruurs and Nizar Ali Badr

A bilingual tale, in Arabic and English, about a Syrian family's flee from home. The book explains the refugee experience through beautiful illustrations.

Rad Women Worldwide
by Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl

This book takes your child through a list of revolutionary women who changed history through activism and radical thought. Young readers meet influential leaders from the painter Frida Kahlo to anarchist political activist Emma Goldman.

Amina's Voice
by Hena Khan

This coming of age story follows a young Muslim girl named Amina as she deals with the ups and downs of growing up, friends moving away, and preparing to read from the Quran in public for the first time. While dealing with the pains of adolescence, Amina must also process the vandalism of her local mosque and the Islamophobia that follows.

Fred Korematsu Speaks Up
by Laura Atkins, Stan Yogi and Yutaka Houlette

This book tells the story of internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II. We follow the story of Fred Korematsu, a Californian, who believes these acts are unconstitutional - so much so, that he brings a case against his internment all the way to the Supreme Court. This book is the first in a series of books that aims to influence young readers to fight for justice in their community.

The Hate U Give
by Angie Thomas

Starr Carter is a 16-year-old girl who's navigating the two worlds of her upper-class prep school and the reality of her poverty stricken neighborhood. After she witnesses her friend getting shot and killed in a confrontation with the police, she must deal with the consequences of talking about what she saw. The author unpacks the complexity and weight of standing up for what you believe in at a young age.

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7 Books That Teach Kids About Social Justice and Activism | KQED

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Not all parents have the time to do what Innosanto Nagara did. For those who can't, we've compiled a list - with help from Teaching for Change - of books that frame big issues through a lens children can understand. A Is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara Every letter is the definition of a different social movement.