I switched gears and am posting late as I think some may want resources about parenting kids to be engaged in dismantling systematic racism and rejecting privilege based on race or culture.

What happened to George Floyd should happen to no one. My nephew is an African American male who just graduated from high school. I grew up seeing, consciously and unconsciously, how differently I was treated, talked to, noticed, and regarded by white people. However, I am as guilty as anyone else of allowing cultural and systematic racism poison my thinking and beliefs that I was entitled to my privilege. I don’t want my boys growing up without challenging the forces that work against their cousin but for them simply because of race. However, I so often feel paralyzed in what I can do about it.

Fortunately, there are resources and we can begin to have these conversations with our kids. It’s never too early to begin talking about race.  Thanks to Rev. Greg Bolt, The Grube’s son-in-law, I can pass along some great resources that he posted a link to:  RESOURCE ROUND UP

There are also many resources compiled by Center for Racial Justice in Education

Also, seminary friend and colleague Carolyn Helsel has written a book with another about teaching kids about diversity. See her post below and an invite to a June 23rd conversation.

If you are a parent or teacher or someone with influence in the lives of young people, you can make a difference by helping them value diversity of all kinds. Yvette Joy Harris-Smith and I get to launch our book on June 23rd with these other amazing parents: Jennifer Harvey, Patrick B Reyes, and Mihee Kim-Kort, all of whom have written books and blogs that also help us understand how to raise our children well, and they’ll be reading from their work. Join us for this important conversation.

Sign up here (the event is free, but please register so they can send you a reminder before the event): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/teaching-kids-the-abcs-of-dive…