You are listening to First Name Basis, episode two, talking to older kids about race.

Welcome to First Name Basis, a community of parents committed to making the transformation,

from good intentions to confident action. Join us each week as we cover critical topics and

answer the questions you've never felt comfortable asking. We'll use the lessons we learned to teach

our children about race, religion, and culture. I'm your host, Jasmine Bradshaw. Hey friends and welcome back to first name basis. Today we are going to be chatting about

how to talk to your older kids about race. And if you listen to our first episode,

how to talk to younger kids about race, you know that it is really important to me that you

leave this conversation with concrete strategies that you can use in your own home. So today,

I will give you three concrete strategies to use when talking to your older children about race. Before we begin,

I just want to remind you that it is totally okay if you don't have all the answers. This is a journey

and not a destination. Help your child understand that their questions are welcomed, even if you're

not quite sure what the answer is. Tell them that you're going to figure it out

together. This is so critically important and you'll hear me say it so many times because we can't

teach our children something that we don't understand ourselves. Be an example to them and show them

that you are learning and that you're committed to the process. Okay, let's dive in. Oftentimes I get the question from parents,

well, where do I start? Race and racism are such broad categories. I don't even know where to begin.

So let me give you a little jumping off point. I want you to start right here. Race is a social

construct that was created to justify slavery.

Because race is a social construct, it's going to take a little bit of abstract thinking

for us to unpack and unlearn all the things that society has taught us about race. So I've invited my husband Carter here

to give us a background, a little mini history lesson on where race came from and how it was used

to justify slavery. It can be helpful to ask yourself this question. What is race? Because sometimes

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