Racism is Taught, But So is Kindness

Picture courtesy of Isaiah May 🙂

With the recent news about the horrible death of George Floyd, I have seen so many people offering their thoughts. He should never have been treated that way. As I was thinking about the whole situation, I kept asking myself, “How can I help?”. It feels overwhelming because I honestly can’t imagine someone not showing kindness to someone else based on the color of their skin. Then I realized, this is something that is taught. Therefore, as parents, it is our responsibility to teach our kids about racism. It starts with us.

• Talk to your kids. What is racism? Have open conversations and allow them to ask questions. Give examples to help demonstrate what it can look like. I feel like I married the world’s best discussion facilitator. We have had many conversations with our kids about different topics. Ian is great at planning out what he wants to discuss and asking the kids open-ended questions. Everyone gets a chance to talk. Kids need to know that they are safe to ask their questions.
• Teach kindness. Clearly, this is probably a goal of most parents, but recent events have made it necessary that we are following through on teaching kindness and making sure that our kids are treating others with respect.
• Roleplay. The more you talk about different situations, the more comfortable kids are in those situations. I like to role play many different scenarios with my kids. We might pretend we are introducing ourselves to adults for the first time or making a new friend on the playground. You can incorporate whichever scenarios you feel are best for your child to know. I think this helps your child become comfortable in a new situation because they have already thought about it and role-played what they would do rather than being caught off-guard.
• Life is colorful so point it out. Some people have blonde hair, some have green eyes, some have tan skin. Allowing kids to recognize that everyone is different, and everyone is important changes their mindset. One of my friends, who is white, bought her daughter a dark-skinned baby doll. Her response – “Babies come in all different colors and I want my little girl to know that.” My boys love sports and that has opened doors for us to talk about how all people have gifts and talents. It doesn’t matter the color of their skin, where they live, or their gender/age.
• Take action. Teach your kids how to take action when they see racism or unfair treatment of others. Show them how to confront it or seek help from adults.
• Pray. We need God to move in the hearts of people. Racism is a heart issue.

Don’t ever stop being kind and truthful.
Let kindness and truth show in all you do.
Write them down in your mind as if on a tablet.
⁴ Then you will be respected
and pleasing to both God and men.

Proverbs 3:3-4