Raising Race Conscious Children

Welcome to Raising Race Conscious Children, a resource to support adults who are trying to talk about race with young children. The goals of these conversations are to dismantle the color-blind framework and prepare young people to work toward racial justice. If we commit to collectively trying to talk about race with young children, we can lean on one another for support as we, together, envision a world where we actively challenge racism each and every day. Many of the blog's posts are geared toward White people but a community of guest bloggers represent diverse backgrounds and the strategies discussed may be helpful for all.

It starts one conversation at a time.

Quick Links


Halloween as an opportunity to dismantle White supremacy: Three Things We Believe This Halloween

by Lori Riddick and Sachi Feris On September 5th, 2017, Raising Race Conscious Children’s Sachi Feris published a post entitled “Moana, Elsa, and Halloween” that generated various questions and comments. Sachi clarified, on the blog’s Facebook feed, that her discussion…

Vegas, Charlottesville, and Remembering Hope

by guest blogger Martha Haakmat Watching the news about Las Vegas over the last week or so, I remembered spending the final week of summer vacation with family in Maine, watching the news every evening about the terrorism of White…

"I wish I were Black": Talking about White privilege with my six-year-old

by guest blogger Ruthie Vincill As a child playing in the ocean, I was taught about the undertow and its power to sneak up on you. As a White child (and beneficiary of White privilege), I was not, however, taught…

Moana, Elsa, and Halloween

by Sachi Feris My five-year-old, who I had successfully shielded from Disney princesses until recently, finally figured out that “Let it go” (which she had been singing with her friends for a over a year), was from the movie “Frozen.”…

What Charlottesville means for our Black family

by Lori Taliaferro Riddick A few weeks ago my family and I visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D. C. As we walked to the museum from our car, my husband warned my children…

Race Matters: A story about White privilege

Raising Race Conscious Children created this comic in response to a comment on our Facebook feed after we shared this comic about class privilege. The commenter wrote that they wished there was a similar comic that addressed White privilege. So…

The problem with “Crazy” Hair Day

by guest blogger Sara Leo   This post has been edited from its original which generated largely positive feedback from other White people and critical feedback from people of color. I have learned a lot through this process and I believe…

“Who is directly impacted?”; Learning to be an effective White activist with my nine-year-old

by guest blogger Sarae Pacetta I’m the White, cisgender (defined as when one’s gender corresponds to their assigned sex) mother of a White child, and a preschool teacher in Columbus, Ohio. I live with my partner and our nine-year-old, who…

In honor of May Day: Challenging conversations about domestic work

by guest blogger Makeba Sergeant Rasin When my son was younger, talking about race felt simple. I’d read “Whose Knees Are These,” with my one-year-old and then coo, afterwards, about how beautiful his brown skin is; his brown knees, toes,…

Playing Monopoly and my “anti-Monopoly” talk

by Sachi Feris My almost-five-year-old has attended her fair share of protests since November. Even my 19-month-old raises a fist in protest when my daughter prompts a call and response: “One!” “We are the people!” “Two!” “A little bit louder!” “Three!”…