Jackie Mader
“We need to talk about parenting,” my friend texted me a few weeks ago in the wake of nationwide protests and outrage over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. “I have questions.” Like many parents, she was now explaining and answering questions about nationwide protests and going deeper than ever into conversations about white privilege and racism. Her 4-year-olds, like my own preschooler, had many questions: “If there’s a Black community, are we part of the white community?” “Daddy’s skin is darker than ours. Is he Black?” Her twins understood racism, but not why people categorize others by race, and their mother wasn’t sure how to explain the historic context of categorizing people by their race in an age appropriate way.
