Struggling with questions of race

[Dorothy Zbornak]

A friend of mine posted something on Facebook today that reminded me of the discussion in skwcm80's post the other day about race. I think it goes right to the heart of what all of us white ladies struggle with. This gets to the heart of it, I think:


"Like most people, I was appalled by the Trayvon Martin verdict. Grief-stricken. Speechless. As a mother. And a pacifist. As someone who thinks it is insane that concealed weapons are legal. What do I say? How could I possibly relate? I am a white upper middle class woman with white upper middle class children.

How can I speak up for something I have never experienced?

And yet.

I'm not gay.

I've never had an abortion."


Anyway, please take a second to read: www.girlsgonechild.net/2013/07/we-need-to-talk-about-race.html

[monkeybabe]

I hope I can find the proper words when Zoe's old enough.

[DesertMoon]

I am a little torn about this kind of stuff as well. I mean Julian is a Caucasian boy...but we are middle eastern which has its own issues with discrimination. I want Julian to love our culture and embrace the new Canadian traditions I'm trying to build for my new family. I want to explain that everyone is different, but we are all people inside...like different color cookie, same filling. My hope is that my son is accepted by the people around him and treats people of different race, religion, gender and orientation with complete respect and dignity. My main goal is to put love in that boys heart so that he can pass it on to others. We all have a heart, mind and feelings and it is shameful for anyone to look down their nose at another person for something so absurd. We are rulers of is planet, it's crazy that we are even still in this place where people think and behave this way. Hopefully the April 2012 babies will be the loving and accepting generation.

[eav2c]

It's hard and I don't know how exactly I'll approach it but I really like what Amanda had to say. One thing I was taught in my early childhood program was its important to let children role play and give them toys that are not always specific to one race, religion, or culture etc. For example we celebrated the chinese new year in my class even though we had no Chinese students. The point was to teach acceptance and that while people look different and believe different things, we should embrace all people and their differences and celebrate it too. I hope to role play a lot of situations with C, when he is old enough, to teach him acceptance and understanding. I think as a parent it is important to diversify what our children do so that they understand acceptance and see all people as the same. Like I said, I don't totally know what I will do, but I will try to keep an open dialect and most of all try to instill love and compassion into his heart.