Interrupting White silence with my children

Interrupting White silence with my children

by Sachi Feris On Wednesday, November 9th, the day after Election Day, I picked up my four-and-a-half-year-old daughter from school with my fourteen-month-old in the baby carrier and told her that we were headed to Manhattan to a protest Trump’s…

"But are we Arab?"; Creating meaning of my children's identities, Part Two

“But are we Arab?”; Creating meaning of my children’s identities, Part Two

by Sachi Feris To read Part One of this post, click here. When I was little, I always claimed, somewhat proudly, that I was “a quarter Lebanese” and that “my dad was born in Cuba” perhaps because it made me different….

De-segregation is not enough: Why building strong, integrated schools matters

De-segregation is not enough: Why building strong, integrated schools matters

by Sahba Rohani At Community Roots Charter School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, where I work as the director of community development, we have ten years of experience running a purposefully integrated school. That’s been possible for a few reasons. Home…

Telling my White four-year-old about Alton Sterling and Philando Castile

Telling my White four-year-old about Alton Sterling and Philando Castile

by Sachi Feris The past 24-hours have been wrought with power struggles between me and my four-year-old, leading to emotions running high for both of us. In response to this, we have been brainstorming strategies for dealing with emotions of…

A letter to my 16-year-old son about his privilege

A letter to my 16-year-old son about his privilege

by guest blogger Jen Cort Dear Son, When you were younger, you came home from school upset because a teacher had said: “All of the Quakers were dead.” Being Quaker, you described feeling unseen and wanted me to correct the…

Undoing the myth of White=beauty: Reading Snow White to my daughter

Undoing the myth of White=beauty: Reading Snow White to my daughter

by Sachi Feris A friend had been staying in our apartment while we were on vacation and left some Disney-version fairytale books from her Spanish class for my then-two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Among them, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” which my…

Chocolate, slave labor, my four-year-old, and our local supermarket

Chocolate, slave labor, my four-year-old, and our local supermarket

by Sachi Feris Last Halloween, a friend posted this link on Facebook about child slave labor in the cocoa industry (in West Africa). As a chocolate-obsessed person, I was embarrassed that this injustice was not on my radar. Since then,…

Conversations with my four-year-old about racism

Conversations with my four-year-old about racism

by guest blogger Rhea St. Julien I’ve been with my husband, who is Black, for 15 years, but I have been White all my life. I still get things wrong, I still miss racist stuff, and I still don’t always…

The Third Little Pig: A lesson on wealth redistribution

The Third Little Pig: A lesson on wealth redistribution

by Sachi Feris While I was in Argentina recently, I found a pop-up version of “The Three Little Pigs” in Spanish, which I purchased and quickly became one of my son’s favorite books. After about 100 readings, literally, it occurred…

Why I want to read books with protagonists of color to my White son

Why I want to read books with protagonists of color to my White son

by guest blogger Suzanne Feinspan I loved reading as a kid. Weekly trips to the library and monthly ones to the bookstore were some of the highlights of my childhood.  I still have a strong sentimental attachment to many of…