Anti-Racist Parenting

The new blog Anti-Racist Parent looks really promising so far. I got a good book recommendation, for The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism, from the comments on Ji In’s introductory post. I liked what Ji In had to say about the strategy of ignoring race or trying to be “colorblind”:

Minimizing and ignoring are ineffective strategies to address racism because they place the burden of responsibility on the target of racism rather than the perpetrators. Ignoring taught me little more than how to suppress my emotions, while minimizing taught me how to be ashamed of my race.

Good stuff. When I was reading Ji In’s description of her teachers minimizing stuff that happened to her, I couldn’t stop wondering… how hard would it have been for her teachers to say to the rude, ignorant little name callers, “That’s racist behavior that we don’t allow at this school”? Well, first someone has to educate the teachers… Then someone has to *not* fire them from their jobs for saying the r-word. (Because of course, pointing out racism is unpardonable, while racist behavior itself is just fine… as long as no one is being “too sensitive”.

Thanks to Mir, from Blogher for the link!
(crossposted to othermag.org)