Talk to Kids About Racism Edition
Care and Feeding | Slate's parenting show
Slate Audio
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2020
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s episode: Elizabeth, Jamilah, and Rebecca are joined by Trina Greene Brown, the founder of Parenting for Liberation, to answer questions about race and police violence. The first question is from a parent puzzling over an appropriate age to introduce her kid to privilege and institutionalized racism. The second question is from a mom whose young son enjoys interacting with the police. Is there a good way to explain police violence to a toddler?
We have a very special Slate Plus segment this week. Jamilah is joined by Dr. Kira Banks to answer a listener question about colorism and complexion bias. Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on MADAF each week, and no ads. Sign up now to listen and support our work.
Recommendations:
Rebecca recommends laughing at really, really bad TV shows like Strange Evidence, Catfish, and Ancient Aliens.
Elizabeth recommends two podcasts. For kids: So Get Me podcast by the Alphabet Rockers. For adults: The Black History Bootcamp by GirlTrek.
Jamilah recommends the McBride Sisters Wine.
Other Recommendations and Resources:
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum
The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color in a New Millennium by Kathy Russell, Midge Wilson and Ronald Hall.
A History of Policing, an online class by Freedom Lifted for young people.
The “American Police” episode of NPR’s Throughline podcast.
Rebecca Lavoie’s instagram post of Henry’s protest sign.
Join us on Facebook and email us at momanddad@slate.com to ask us new questions, tell us what you thought of today’s show, and give us ideas about what we should talk about in future episodes.
Podcast produced by Rosemary Belson.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains explicit language. |
| 0:05.8 | Welcome to Mom and Dad are Fighting, Slate's Parenting Podcast for Thursday, June 18th, |
| 0:10.4 | the Let's Talk to Your Kids About Racism Edition. |
| 0:13.6 | I'm Jamila Lemieux, a writer, contributor to Slate's Karen Feeding Parenting column, |
| 0:18.0 | the communications consultant, a newbie screenwriter, and mom to Naima, |
| 0:21.7 | who is seven. We live in Los Angeles, California. I'm Elizabeth New Camp. I write the |
| 0:26.1 | homeschool and family travel blog, Dutch Dutch, goose. I'm mom to three littles, Henry 8, |
| 0:31.5 | Oliver, 6, and Teddy 3. And I am in Navarre, Florida. I'm Rebecca LaVoy. I can't believe I also have kids named Henry and |
| 0:39.5 | Teddy along with one of the girls this podcast. I am mom to Henry who is 18 going on 19, Teddy |
| 0:46.3 | who is 17, and my wonderful stepdaughter, Lily, who just turned 20 this week. Well, Rebecca, we're so |
| 0:53.0 | glad to have you back this week. You agreed to fill in for Dan a while ago. And it just so happens that you're here on the show where we're going to be talking about all things racism. Can't wait. We talk about it all the time. I honestly can't wait. I'm super excited about it. I've been getting so many questions from people who know me, like, from a former |
| 1:10.9 | parenting podcast persona about this. I freaking love talking about it. So I am down. Thank you |
| 1:18.3 | for having me on. And for most of you out there listening, you are probably aware that we |
| 1:23.7 | wanted to set aside a show to focus on the current worldwide conversation about racism, |
| 1:29.5 | police violence, and equality. There's been a recent uptaken activism inspired by the deaths of |
| 1:36.0 | Ahmad Arbery, Rihanna Taylor, and George Floyd, and it's resulted in sustained Black Lives Matter protests |
| 1:42.9 | in all 50 states, which is incredible. |
| 1:46.3 | As a result, people have a renewed sense of urgency when it comes to addressing issues of |
| 1:50.6 | racism within their own lives. And that includes parents who are figuring out how to talk to |
| 1:55.3 | their children about systemic institutionalized racism, something that a lot of parents have |
| 2:00.5 | either chosen not to talk about |
| 2:02.4 | with their children in the past, haven't felt like they had to talk to their children about |
... |
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