2015 - Page 3 of 7 - Raising Race Conscious Children

My two-year-old’s passion for consciousness-raising

September 22, 2015 · by Raising Race Conscious Children · in Early Childhood, Elementary School, Race, Sachi Feris, STRATEGY: AFFIRM CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS, STRATEGY: CHILDREN AND ACTIVISM, STRATEGY: CONSIDER FEELINGS, STRATEGY: FAIRNESS/UNFAIRNESS, STRATEGY: NAME RACE/WHITENESS, STRATEGY: SPEAK TO IMAGES/WORDS, Toddlers

by Sachi Feris In a conversation about stereotypes and children’s books, a colleague (at the school where I teach Spanish to kindergarten and first-grade) mentioned that the song “Baa Baa Black Sheep” contained references to slavery in the United States:…

White privilege and imaginary play with guns

September 18, 2015 · by Raising Race Conscious Children · in Amy Fellows, Early Childhood, Elementary School, Race, Racial Identity, STRATEGY: CHILDREN AND ACTIVISM, STRATEGY: CONSIDER FEELINGS, STRATEGY: NAME RACE/WHITENESS, STRATEGY: SPEAK TO IMAGES/WORDS, White Privilege

by guest blogger Amy Fellows Today, I had a very clear moment of understanding White privilege. My six-year-old bi-racial daughter was playing with some White neighbor kids, when another girl came over with a very real looking cap gun pistol,…

My toddler called me a racist…

September 15, 2015 · by Raising Race Conscious Children · in Race, Shannon Cofrin Gaggero, STRATEGY: AFFIRM CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS, STRATEGY: NAME RACE/WHITENESS, Toddlers, White Privilege

by guest blogger Shannon Cofrin Gaggero …Out of the blue, while washing his hands one day. It sounded more like “ray-tish” and for a solid 2 minutes we were stuck in the excruciating toddler communication limbo where he repeats himself…

Seeing “the only one”: Students of color in majority White schools

September 10, 2015 · by Raising Race Conscious Children · in Early Childhood, Elementary School, Martha Haakmat, Race, Racial Identity, STRATEGY: AFFIRM CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS, STRATEGY: NAME RACE/WHITENESS, Toddlers

by guest blogger Martha Haakmat When my oldest daughter, Kaila, was two, she came home from pre-school with her class picture firmly in hand. She wanted to put it up by the other pictures on the piano in our living room…

“Are you speaking Spanish?”; How to ask questions about differences

September 8, 2015 · by Raising Race Conscious Children · in Early Childhood, Elementary School, Racial Identity, Sachi Feris, STRATEGY: AFFIRM CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS, STRATEGY: CONSIDER FEELINGS, STRATEGY: SPEAK TO IMAGES/WORDS, Toddlers, White Privilege

by Sachi Feris One morning, my two-year-old and I took a walk to the playground. She was walking up the steps to the slide where two bigger boys were playing on the landing. I was standing by the slide and…

The problem with my White son believing that “everyone is equal”

July 5, 2015 · by Raising Race Conscious Children · in Class, Danielle McDonald, Early Childhood, Elementary School, Race, STRATEGY: AFFIRM CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS, STRATEGY: CHILDREN AND ACTIVISM, STRATEGY: EXPLORE THROUGH PLAY, Toddlers, White Privilege

by guest blogger Danielle McDonald Today I read a post on Urban Cusp’s Facebook page stating, “White parents there is work to be done and you have a critical role to play.” This was posted above a tweet that had…

In response to Charleston: White anti-racist parenting

June 25, 2015 · by Raising Race Conscious Children · in Early Childhood, Elementary School, Race, Rev. Emily Joye Reynolds, STRATEGY: AFFIRM CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS, STRATEGY: CHILDREN AND ACTIVISM, STRATEGY: CONSIDER FEELINGS, STRATEGY: NAME RACE/WHITENESS, STRATEGY: SPEAK TO IMAGES/WORDS, Toddlers, White Privilege

by guest blogger Rev. Emily Joye Reynolds Last night at a vigil I heard a Black elder in my community trace herstory through the bombing of a church that claimed the lives of 4 young Black girls, the murder of…

Why I use the words ’Black’ and ‘White’ versus ‘brown’ and ‘peach’

June 16, 2015 · by Raising Race Conscious Children · in Babies, Early Childhood, Elementary School, Middle Grades, Race, Racial Identity, Sachi Feris, STRATEGY: NAME RACE/WHITENESS, STRATEGY: SPEAK TO IMAGES/WORDS, Toddlers, White Privilege

by Sachi Feris In Raising Race Conscious Children’s interactive workshops, participants practice explicitly naming race. I have gotten a lot of questions about the utility of using the words “Black” and “White” as part of the strategy to name race…

What our six-year-olds have to say about gender stereotypes

June 12, 2015 · by Raising Race Conscious Children · in Early Childhood, Elementary School, Emily Silver, Kevin Wood, Stephanie Grundy, STRATEGY: CHALLENGE STEREOTYPES, STRATEGY: CHILDREN AND ACTIVISM, STRATEGY: CONSIDER FEELINGS, STRATEGY: FAIRNESS/UNFAIRNESS, STRATEGY: SPEAK TO IMAGES/WORDS

by guest bloggers Kevin Wood, Emily Silver, and Stephanie Grundy In January, a theater group performed a version of “Princess and the Pea” for our pre-K to second-grade school. The show focused a young woman whose only role was to…

Affirming children’s questions and comments about race: a simple but powerful tool

June 10, 2015 · by Raising Race Conscious Children · in Class, Early Childhood, Elementary School, Race, Sachi Feris, STRATEGY: AFFIRM CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS, STRATEGY: CHILDREN AND ACTIVISM, STRATEGY: NAME RACE/WHITENESS, Uncategorized, White Privilege

by Sachi Feris More than ten years ago, I was teaching at a progressive, independent school and my best pal/colleague, a White woman named Sara, approached me quietly, saying: “Something just happened that I need your feedback on.” “What happened?”…