Let's talk about how to raise an anti-racist baby.
Now, we all know babies don't come out of the womb as racist. Unfortunately, we live in a world where if you are not anti-racist, there is a good chance that you can be conditioned to different biases against people who don't look like you. So how do you counter that? By being anti-racist?
The first thing to think about is educating yourself. In order to teach your kids how to love other people, how to celebrate differences, and how to be kind to their fellow man, you have to know how to do that as well. Educate yourself about what racism is and isn’t, educate yourself about unconscious bias and prejudices, and be willing to accept that there might be work that you have to do before you're able to transfer that knowledge onto your own kids.
The second thing that you need to do in order to raise anti-racist kids is to make sure your community is representative of the world. That means diverse preschools and playgroups, diverse houses of worship, and extracurricular activities. It's important for your kids to know that black people, white people, Asians, Hispanics – that we are all in this world together, that we all coexist, that we all love each other, and that this is how we play and hang out together. It's a really easy way to teach your kids to be anti-racist.
The next thing I want you to think about is looking at your home and what cultures are represented inside of your house. What sort of books are your kids reading? What kind of toys are they playing with? What kind of television shows are they watching? Make sure there is diversity represented in your home so that your kids grow up knowing that all of this is acceptable, and all of this is a part of being human, loving other people, and recognizing – and accepting and celebrating – differences.
The final thing that you need to do in order to raise kids who are anti-racist is to model it yourself. If you aren't kind and loving and accepting to other humans, your kid is going to pick up on that. So that's why it's important for you to recognize if there are different biases you have against certain cultures that maybe you were brought up thinking about. These are things that as parents we have to be aware of, and we have to do the work to make sure our kids don't take on those same biases.
You can raise an anti-racist kid. We can raise an anti-racist kid. We can all be on this Earth together, loving each other, celebrating our differences, and coexisting in peace.
