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“That’s not fair!” and the concept of protest

by Sachi Feris One of my daughter’s favorite activities is playing with her vintage Fisher Price people from the 1970’s. At one-and-a-half, she spent happy hours placing them in and out of her vintage school bus…but it proved to be…

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What I did when my son said, “that man looks like a monkey!” on a public bus

by guest blogger Julie Roberts-Phung This post is being re-posted as part of a week-long series highlighting supporters of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), both in their parenting of race-conscious children and their activist work for racial justice. SURJ…

What I say about a children’s book when all the characters are White

What I say about a children’s book when all the characters are White

by Sachi Feris Among our children’s books, we have a dozen or so of my childhood favorites that my mom saved. One such classic is “Too Many Mittens” by Florence and Louis Slobodkin, published in 1958. This story is about twin…

What to do when your child comments on a stranger's physical appearance in public

What to do when your child comments on a stranger’s physical appearance in public

by Sachi Feris The first time my daughter verbally communicated in public about another person’s physical appearance, we were on an Amtrak train back from visiting friends in Boston. She had just turned two. The ticket collector had an olive…

Why I talk about race when I read with my toddler

Why I talk about race when I read with my toddler

by Sachi Feris Sometimes, I sit down to read a book with my two and half-year-old, and I ask myself if my race-conscious talk is overkill. “Do I have to talk about race every single time we read?” And I…

How I would talk to my future four-year-old about Michael Brown and Eric Garner

How I would talk to my future four-year-old about Michael Brown and Eric Garner

by Sachi Feris “There are a lot of people who are sad and mad because a police officer hurt a man who was Black. You know that police officers are supposed to help people, but this police officer hurt a…

How to talk to toddlers about stereotypes

How to talk to toddlers about stereotypes

by Sachi Feris On a recent trip to the library, I pulled a book from the Spanish section with two children on the cover, both with light-to-medium brown skin. I showed the book to my daughter and she agreed we…