Raising Race Conscious Children

Welcome to Raising Race Conscious Children, 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.

It starts one conversation at a time.

Quick Links


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…

“One Hundred Years of Lynching:” Coming to Terms With America’s Violent Past

by guest blogger Pedro A. Noguera, Ph. D When I moved back to NY in 2000, one of the first things I did with my children was to take them to visit the Museum of Natural History. I had always enjoyed…

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…

by guest blogger Shannon Cofrin Gaggero My husband and I are striving to raise our children outside the confines of traditional gender norms. We are not raising our kids without gender influences altogether, but we are actively trying to create space…

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…

Leo Lionni's "A Color of his Own": Cross-race versus same-race spaces

by Sachi Feris As a long-time reader of Leo Lionni, it surprised me that Google searches of Lionni’s books did not yield lessons plans explicitly discussing race, since many of his books speak to themes of racial identity and the…

My son likes the color pink: Facing gender stereotypes

by guest blogger Clint Edwards I was sitting on the sofa next to my eight-year-old son, watching Pokémon, when he let out a long breath and said, “Dad, I like pink.” He wouldn’t look me in the eye, as though…

by guest blogger Janet Alperstein, Ph.D Regardless of your political affiliation, I hope you will take a moment to read about how a young Jewish American and Latino boy is experiencing the 2016 presidential, frequently as a result of what…

What happened when I defined sexism for my daughter

by guest blogger Jennifer Harvey Soccer’s been in my blood since I was little. Watching my kids learn to love it has been awesome. For the first time last fall, my seven-year-old played with girls instead of playing co-ed. I wasn’t…

Why it is my job to explain White privilege to my almost four-year-old

by Sachi Feris A couple of months ago, I was singing a bedtime song to my daughter and she interrupted with, “Mamma, sometimes in the morning when I wake up my pillow is wet.” It was a statement with the…