A dad struggles to talk to his daughter about race
In lieu of a Guest Dad today, I'm sharing with you a thought-provoking essay that ran on the "Exploring Race" forum on the Chicago Tribune's Web site earlier this week.
In it, a father finds himself looking for the right language to talk with his 9-year-old daughter about the exhibit on slavery they saw together at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill. The interesting thing is that the father is a college professor and founder of RaceProject.org, so talking about race is what he does. Yet he's just not sure how to broach the harsh realities with his child.
That's a familiar position to me. My 8-year-old has been keenly interested in the subjects of slavery and segregation, and has checked a couple of books out of the library that I later found portrayed some pretty brutal aspects of that history. I've tried to be as honest as I think she can handle, but sometimes I wonder if I'm doing it right.
Comments
As long as the issue of slavery is not
1.Sugarcoated
2.Explained over the childs head
This should not be a hard task for either of you. Answer the question the child has and if you are not sure then you both need to go together and look up the issue.
I have always made sure that my children read certain books, saw certain shows so that they can see how far we have come from where we were and where we could be.
I found that getting the complete works of Roots has helped my son in getting a better understanding of where he came from, how things were and why some people are the way that they are(to some extent).
You will be surprised how much your child understands and when you hear their responses it will amaze you.
Posted by: calamity | April 3, 2009 1:36 PM