COLUMN: Time for white people to have ‘the talk’ with their kids
Every black parent has numerous, ongoing talks about racism with their kids. Nothing will change until white parents start talking to their kids about racism all the time, too
Every black parent, at some point, has to have “the talk,” the proverbial sit-down where we engage our children in a serious discussion about how black people are treated by police. We explain how to converse with police, how to make eye contact, how or when to show respect, how, when necessary, they must sometimes genuflect to unjust authority in order to protect themselves.
Inevitably, it’s not just one talk. Circumstances force us to have a series of conversations throughout our children’s young lives, because racism is a constant presence.
If you are just having “the talk” with your child for the first time this week to explain the protests they’re seeing on television or outside their windows over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, you have a problem. It probably means you’re not regularly talking with them about current events and they’re not getting a good education about American history in school. It also means you have willfully buried your head in the sand to the stark injustices that disrespect the very notion of our American democracy and the role you may be playing in those injustices by your silence.
In the face of almost daily occurrences of racial violence against black people, there shouldn’t be one talk about police when you’re a parent — of any race. We teach our children every day to help them navigate the CONTINUE READING: Teaching kids about racism: Something every parent should do, all the time
