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anti-racism for wee ones
So like: Of course we have always done our best to model non-racism for the prince. He's a White upper-middle class boy-type person with (as far as we can tell right now) no physical or mental disabilities, so he will be moving through life on extremely the lowest difficulty setting; and so far I've been trying to make him aware of the variety that exists in the world and the only commentary has mainly been that variety is good. Of course in these times and also the older he gets, the more that's not really enough, is it.
He has e.g. a book called "The Okay Book" in which one page says "It's okay to be a different color," and it is, but (a) I've been going a little further and pointing out that it's *good* to be a different color, wouldn't do if we were all alike, only (b) I don't know how to teach him that there are people who *don't* think it's okay to be a different color and those people are wrong. (To leave the realm of race for a moment, another example: He once asked me, speaking of some neighborhood kids, where those kids' mom was, to which I said "Oh - they have two dads. Some kids have a mom and a dad, and some have two dads, and some have two moms. And some have just one mom and no dad, or just one dad and no mom, or some other arrangement. There are all kinds of families." He probably processed about half of that - okay, my parents are called Mommy and Daddy, those kids' parents are called Daddy and Baba, no mom at that house, fine, can I have a cookie?) One of his preschool teachers is Black and at least one other is Latinx, and last week he told me "N's body is dark brown. And C's is light brown." And I agreed that this was true and asked him what color his own body was, but I know I have to do more and better than that and I'm not sure what or how.
If anyone has thoughts I would welcome them.
He has e.g. a book called "The Okay Book" in which one page says "It's okay to be a different color," and it is, but (a) I've been going a little further and pointing out that it's *good* to be a different color, wouldn't do if we were all alike, only (b) I don't know how to teach him that there are people who *don't* think it's okay to be a different color and those people are wrong. (To leave the realm of race for a moment, another example: He once asked me, speaking of some neighborhood kids, where those kids' mom was, to which I said "Oh - they have two dads. Some kids have a mom and a dad, and some have two dads, and some have two moms. And some have just one mom and no dad, or just one dad and no mom, or some other arrangement. There are all kinds of families." He probably processed about half of that - okay, my parents are called Mommy and Daddy, those kids' parents are called Daddy and Baba, no mom at that house, fine, can I have a cookie?) One of his preschool teachers is Black and at least one other is Latinx, and last week he told me "N's body is dark brown. And C's is light brown." And I agreed that this was true and asked him what color his own body was, but I know I have to do more and better than that and I'm not sure what or how.
If anyone has thoughts I would welcome them.
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