Antiracist Parenting

The mission of the BU Center for Antiracist Research is to convene varied researchers and practitioners to figure out novel and practical ways to understand, explain, and solve seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice. We foster exhaustive racial research, research-based policy innovation, data-driven educational and advocacy campaigns, and narrative-change initiatives. We are working toward building an antiracist society that ensures equity and justice for all.

Pacific Educational Group is committed to achieving racial equity in the U.S. and beyond. We engage in sustained partnerships featuring training, coaching and consulting with organizations to transform beliefs, behaviors, and results so people of all races can achieve at their highest levels and live their most empowered and powerful lives.

EmbraceRace was founded in early 2016 by two parents (one Black, the other multiracial Black/White) who set out to create the community and gather the resources they needed (need!) to meet the challenges they face raising children in a world where race matters. Since that time, EmbraceRace has grown into a multiracial community of parents, teachers, experts, and other caring adults who support each other to meet the challenges that race poses to our children, families, and communities.

The mission of the Institute for Racial Equity & Excellence is to create inclusive environments and to ensure equity and social justice at all levels of society.  We aim to change the hearts and practices of the workforce to enhance child, family, and community outcomes, especially of those working with communities of color and other marginalized groups.

The Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP) provides technical assistance and training, upon request, in the areas of race, sex, national origin, and religion to public school districts and other responsible governmental agencies to promote equitable educational opportunities and work in the areas of civil rights, equity, and school reform. 

Talking about race, although hard, is necessary. We are here to provide tools and guidance to empower your journey and inspire conversation.

Racial Equity Tools is designed to support individuals and groups working to achieve racial equity. This site offers tools, research, tips, curricula and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding and to help those working toward justice at every level – in systems, organizations, communities and the culture at large.

Raising Race Conscious Children is a resource to support adults who are trying to talk about race with young children. The goals of these conversations are to dismantle the color-blind framework and prepare young people to work toward racial justice. If we commit to collectively trying to talk about race with young children, we can lean on one another for support as we, together, envision a world where we actively challenge racism each and every day. Many of the blog's posts are geared toward White people but a community of guest bloggers represent diverse backgrounds and the strategies discussed may be helpful for all.

Rethinking Schools began in 1986, when a group of Milwaukee education activists — teachers, teacher educators, and community members — met to talk about how they could bring more critical voices into the conversation about public schools and libraries. 

Social Justice Books is a project of Teaching for Change, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide teachers and parents with the tools to create schools where students learn to read, write and change the world. Teaching for Change developed Social Justice Books in 2017 to identify and promote the best multicultural and social justice children’s books, as well as articles and books for educators. 

Given the tragic and racially-charged current events, many parents are wrestling with their own feelings, the hopes they have for their children, and the difficulty of helping those children thrive in a world full of racial bias. Parents may better face today's challenges with an understanding of how racial bias works in children, as well as strategies to help them deal with and react to racial differences.

Anti-bias curriculum is an approach to early childhood education that sets forth values-based principles and methodology in support of respecting and embracing differences and acting against bias and unfairness. Anti-bias teaching requires critical thinking and problem solving by both children and adults. The overarching goal is creating a climate of positive self and group identity development, through which every child will achieve her or his fullest potential.

Our mission is to help teachers and schools educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy.

We Need Diverse Books™ is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and a grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.

The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in classrooms across the country. For more than ten years, the Zinn Education Project has introduced students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula. 

A conversation with Bettina Love, Gholdy Muhammad, Dena Simmons and Brian Jones about abolitionist teaching and antiracist education. What would freedom look like in our schools? How can abolitionist educators make the most of this moment to fight for humane, liberatory, anti-racist schooling for black youth and for all youth? The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the US education system overnight. The antiracist rebellion in the streets has shown a light on the deep racial inequality in America. Educators and activists who have nurtured radical dreams for public schools now face an unprecedented moment of change, and the challenge of trying to teach and organize online in the midst of unfolding crises. Scholar and author Bettina Love’s concept of abolitionist teaching is about adopting the radical stance of the movement that ultimately overthrew slavery, but persisted and insisted on freedom long before that victory.

"With everything happening in America, and even around the world, with all the tragedies, I have taken in my blackness even more. I feel very proud to be black." Tell us, how does the world see YOU? Do you feel defined by your skin color, gender, or maybe even your religion?

We invited the participants of How You See Me to have a conversation about their experience and the themes brought up in the comments. In this episode they discuss the practice and importance of understanding. What are the different ways you can practice understanding for people of a different race, religion, gender, or background than you?

“The worst conversation adults can have with kids about race is no conversation at all,” says author Jemar Tisby. “Talking to kids about race needs to happen early, often, and honestly.” In a new episode of Home School, The Atlantic’s animated series about parenting, Tisby offers advice on how to have a conversation with children about race, from experiential learning to watching classic animated films.

When her 3-year-old son told her that a classmate told him that his skin was brown because he drank chocolate milk, Dr. Tatum, former president of Spelman College and a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Haas Center for Public Service, was surprised. As a clinical psychologist, she knew that preschool children often have questions about racial difference, but she had not anticipated such a question. But through conversations with her preschool son, followed by talking to teachers, colleagues and parents, she came to realize it is the things we don’t say and the matters we don’t discuss with our children that find their way into racist dialogue and thinking.’

From the site: "I made this video for the kindergarten students at my school. I realize this might be a helpful video for non Black children to also watch. In the video I discuss what racism is and how it’s impacted the lives of Black and Brown people. I also read aloud the story Let’s Talk about Race. Finally, I encourage young people to think about what actions they can take to use their voice to speak out against injustices."

Official program begins about 5 minutes and 30 seconds in.

Join us for a discussion about raising antiracist kids with author of the new book, AntiRacist Baby, Ibram X.Kendi in conversation with Derecka Purnell. A new uprising across the country demanding racial justice is a powerful reminder that families of all backgrounds need to be pro-active in raising children to understand racism and discrimination, and helping our kids to be a force for anti-racist change in the world. How do families raise actively anti-racist children?

White guilt is a roadblock to equality, says Robin DiAngelo. It takes race conversations off the table and maintains the status quo. "How do so many of us who are white individually feel so free of racism and yet we live in a society that is so profoundly separate and unequal by race?" asks DiAngelo. Start doing something to dismantle the systemic racism that benefits you at the expense of others.

We invited the participants of How You See Me to have a conversation about their experience and the themes brought up in the comments. In this episode they discuss why it matters that we have labels. White, black, Hispanic, American, skinny, LGBTQ, disabled... all if these labels and categories play an important role in our lives. What are your labels? How can we use labels to start a meaningful conversation?