![]() They have books about Black people in history, they have books that specifically address diversity and inclusion and they have fictional books that could be about anyone, but happen to have a Black person as the main character. On Mazzy and Harlow’s bookshelf currently, they have just as many books about Black experiences as they do about white ones. It made them more prone to pick books with POC as the main characters. It made it easier to discuss antisemitism. ![]() It made them understand that the world isn’t perfect and everyone has different struggles. It made them more interested in learning about people of all different colors and backgrounds. It never made my kids think having brown skin was bad. We’ve read that book so much, the pages are torn and the binding is coming undone. I thought- why do I want to give her the idea that some people think having brown skin is bad when she would never come to that conclusion on her own? Regardless, she loved the book, as did Harlow when she got older, and asked to read it over and over. I remember reading that book to Mazzy and feeling really weird about it. He was promoting his children’s book “ Chocolate Me” which was about a Black boy whose white friends made fun of his skin color and facial features. When Mazzy and Harlow were babies, I had Taye Diggs over for the Mommy Shorts Show. Over the years, I’ve found that exposing my kids to topics I find uncomfortable helps create empathetic, understanding and overall better human beings. I said this the other day, but I will say it again- When I first had kids, I wanted to protect them from all the bad stuff in the world, but then I realized that option only comes from a place of privilege. I told her that every person of color she knows has most likely experienced racism too. And I reminded her about something it said in the book- that racism can happen in big and small ways. I told her that was true, but then I made sure she understood that racism still happened today. “Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Rosa Parks,” she said. After we read it, Harlow told me that she knew people who had experienced racism. ![]() This week, Harlow and I read “ A Kid’s Book About Racism.” It’s a simple book designed to introduce the topic to your kids and pave the way for more conversation. But we must consider that by not acknowledging the existence of racism with our kids, including all the smaller examples that do not make the news, we are contributing to the problem. The stories on the news right now are horrifying and make racism in this country seem insurmountable.
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