Something that keeps coming back to me is the question of what I (as a non-POC person who isn’t in any position of power) can do to help fight racism. I try to educate myself (and others, when the opportunity presents itself) and stand up against racist language and actions that happen around me. I’d really like to do something bigger than myself, but I’m not really sure where to start, so I’ve been looking to my son. He’s only 6 months old, and I worry every day about the world he’s growing up in. Racism and bigotry are born of ignorance and fear, so I feel like the best weapons against them are instilling knowledge in people—and if we can prevent kids from growing up with that crap in their heads in the first place, it will be a big step closer to ending it. My mother did a great job raising me with an anti-racist attitude, so I plan on following lots of her footsteps with Max, but I’d love input from POC and other parents, too.

Like I said, he’s only 6 months old, so at the moment he’s just learning things like how awesome his toes taste and that the vacuum cleaner isn’t actually a monster trying to eat him. So right now, I’m just making sure to expose him to lots of different kinds of people to help him become comfortable with differences. I have some really great friends who are POC that he spends time around (and his favorite person in the world seems to be DJ Lance Rock from Yo Gabba Gabba, lol). When he gets old enough to understand things like race, I plan on teaching him through example and explaining why stereotypes he hears about POC are wrong (we do live in a small city in Michigan, after all, so it’s inevitable that he’s going to hear a redneck spout racist fuckery at some point).  

What kinds of things have you done to teach your kids about equality?