“Mom, what’s racism?” When my son asked me this loaded question, I started sweating profusely. How do you explain racism? Even more importantly (and more confusing), how do you explain racism to kids?
Racism is complex to think about and talk about. Racism is even more complex to discuss with kids. While we should have conversations with our children about the existence and disastrous effects of racism, there are also books that can help them better understand the history behind it. Here are 33 books of them, centering on race, racism and diversity, in words and concepts for kids:
Age: 4-8; This gorgeous account by Academy-award winner Lupita Nyongo of a little dark-skinned girl called Sulwe speaks to children about colorism, diversity and honoring who you are.
Age: 6-10 years; Mama Africa is the nickname of Grammy-award winning South African singer Miriam Makeba, who rose to fame during the segregationist regime of apartheid and whose story this book recounts.
Age: 4+ – This picture book provides an inspirational introduction to the story of four Black women who helped NASA launch men into space!
Age: 8-12; Through children’s stories from many African countries, this book fights to counter stereotypes and celebrate racial diversity.
Age: 5+ – This 2016 New York Times Best Illustrated Book is a poetic piece of African-American history depicting New Orlean’s Congo Square as the heart of freedom.
Age: 5+ – This powerful and moving picture book uses original plantation documents and slave auction to document the lives of slaves
Age: 6+ – This beautiful work introduces young readers to the unique work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, who knew success when young.
Age: 6+ – Kids are being taught in this book about Mandela’s life as illustrated by stunning art.
Age: 8+ – In this gorgeous work, stunning art is used to amplify the words of Dr. King for kids.
Age: 8+ – This powerful book is a thrilling account of kids investigating a racist incident.
Age: 6-9 – The lives of 10 Black women activists in the face of oppression are celebrated in this book around the battles and triumphs of the civil rights movement.
Age: 6-9; When Sylvia Mendez, an American citizen of Puerto Rican and Mexican heritage, was denied enrollment to a “whites only” school, her parents organized the Latinx community to win a lawsuit against the segregation of schools in California.
Age: 4-8; For every time when we may feel like “the other”, the only one in the room, or just “different”, this book reminds us about the power of courageous connection.
Age: 7-10; This beautiful illustrated book literally walks children through the beautiful and diverse Senegalese culture via Aminata’s morning walks to school. An ode to my native country!
Age: 5-9; Whe Viola Desmond refused to be budged from her seat in the Roseland theatre in Nova Scotia, she became a symbol of racial justice in Canada.
Age: 5-8; Healthy Black hair is beautiful, and this powerful work reminds little and big girls everywhere of this beautiful fact!
Age: 4-8; The legendary Miss Lena Horne, renowned African-American actress and civil rights activist, is celebrated in this picture book for kids.
Age: 7-11; This story of identity, resiliance, and resistance follows the life of Irene, taken away from her First Nations family, and fighting to reclaim herself.
Age: 3-7; This is the story of Florence Mills, born to slaves and destined to become a singing sensation on the Harlem stages in the 1920’s, who used her fame to promote civil rights and Black performers.
All ages; 40 history-making Black women, from poet Maya Angelou to mathematician Katherine Johnson, are highlighted in this educational compilation of stories.
Ages: 4-8; This book combines extraordinary poetry by Ntozake Shange with outstanding art from Kadir Nelson to tell the story of Correta Scott King through the vision of and civil rights freedom she shared with Martin Luther King.
Ages: 5-8; From her escape from slavery to her purpose in leading others to freedom, this poignant account introduces kids to slavery and to the glorious life of Harriet Tubman.
Ages: 4-8; When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, she made history!
Age: 5-9; Sojourner Truth spent her life spreading her message of equal rights for Black people and women, which is shared with children in a beautiful way through this book.
Age: 3-7; Written by a citizen of the Cherokee nation, this book teaches kids about modern Native American life.
Age: 9-12; Voices of Freedom introduces children to activist Fannie Lou Hammer, who was a civil rights champion from 1950’s to 1970’s.
Age: 6-11; Anna May Wong is the first Chinese American movie star in Hollywood, who used her fame to fight for racial equality in the movie industry. This book takes kids into racial justice in the film industry.
Age: 5+; In simple, sometimes silly words, this book introduces kids to the concept of racism, celebrating differences and having a conversation about race.
Age: 7-11; This fiction book tells the story of Ruths’ family trip by car in the 1950’s, and teaches children about the Jim Crow laws and how the historical Green Book helped African-American travelers remain safe.
Age: 4-12; This fun, cute and entertaining book also teaches children about the importance of diversity and differences.
Age: 3-7; Sesame Street shows kids everywhere that while we should celebrate differences, what matters is that we’re more alike than different!
Age: 1-12; From the creators of Hair Like Mine, Skin Like Mine is a powerful and fun ode to diversity for children.
Age: 5-7; A vivid account of the fight for Mexican-American justice through the eyes of young Emma Tenayuca in the early 1920’s.
What other books for children about race and diversity would you recommend?
Whenever we experience racism and bias as human beings, it leaves a painful wound on our souls. Whether it happens to us directly or happens to someone else, the wound is still sorely felt, and registered in our collective memory for the rest of our lives. As the recent events have shown us, with the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, to cite just a few, the wound is still left widely open in today’s world. And while feelings may be raw and our hearts broken, there are ways to contribute to eliminating systemic racism and bias.
We can all do our part when it comes to eliminating racism and bias in our society. As working women and working moms, we’re often at the end of this bias. As women of color, we’re under the threat of both racism and bias, which doubles the negative repercussions.
While we owe it to ourselves to observe a pause and process the difficult emotions elicited by racism and bias of any kind, there are a few ways we can all contribute:
Understand and get well-informed:
At a visceral human level, we can sense racism. Our instincts can pick up on it, even if we may not be able to put it into words. It affects our health, to the point of creating chronic stress and underlying conditions.
However, the better informed and the more we’re able to understand the nature of racism, the better we’re able to hold each other accountable, and have the healing conversations, structures and measures needed to eradicate it.
Vote and get involved in local and national politics
Getting involved and voting locally is also key to ascertaining that decisions made are benefiting all, and that systemic racism is kept at bay.
Advocate for diversity at work
Racism and bias, both conscious and unconscious, are regular occurrences in the professional sphere as well, and this despite the confirmed relationship between diversity and profitability evidenced through the 2018 “Delivering through Diversity” McKinsey report.
Advocating for diversity at work is not just limited to pointing out bias in the workplace, but also working to establish policies, procedures and institutions protecting people of color and ensuring greater diversity and accountability.
Become an ally
An ally is a person who takes action to support an under-represented group despite not being a member of said group. Often, individuals with more access and privilege volunteer to serve as allies to help bring about the change needed to help those with less access be more successful.
There are resources available out there to help eradicate racism. However, not all these are readily communicated and available to the public at large, even with social media. It is up to each one of us to keep an eye out for these resources and share them with others as a way of spreading more positive information and funnels to provide assistance.
Racism is one of the inconvenient truths we, as humans, have a hard time discussing and communicating about. Yes, it is hard to tackle the topic, but it’s a necessity, especially in the world we live in!
Many, if not most of us, are faced with examples of racist behavior and thought on a frequent basis, sometimes daily. It is up to each and every one of us to use these not as opportunities to condemn, but as opportunities to teach, educate and learn ourselves.
Take care of your mental health
Last but not least, protecting our mental health against the mental, emotional, and spiritual damages of racism is paramount to not just preserving ourselves so we can continue this important human mission to eradicate racism. It may mean unplugging from the news and social media, loving on ourselves and others, and engaging on the challenging but healing path of forgiveness.
How can you contribute to eradicating racism right where you are, with what you have?
In this episode of The Corporate Sister podcast, I’m discussing the disproportionate impact and burden of the coronavirus pandemic on working moms.
From mental and physical to professional and economic consequences, working mothers are at the end of dire and quite serious repercussions of this pandemic. However, there are ways we can all help throughout and beyond this crisis!
Thanks for Listening!
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Welcome to Let It Be Friday!, where I say hello (and TGIF), and round up the lifestyle, career and business news that inspired, excited, made me smile (or laugh out loud).
In hopeful news this week, Business Insider companies big and small are ramping up their efforts to support their employees’ childcare needs during this crisis;
The Glassdoor Blog lists 20 companies hiring for part-time work right now;
These companies are letting their employees work from home forever, and Fast Company is listing them here;
We knew it already, but Working Mother confirms working moms’ chores have doubled to over 65 hours a week during this pandemic;
Preparing for a video interview in these times of pandemic? Recruiting Blogs offers valuable advice from both candidate and recruiter’s perspective;
One of the most challenging parts of growth as an individual, and especially as a working woman and mom, is the part when you realize that not everybody will grow and go with you. It’s a daunting and saddening realization that can be heartbreaking at times. Yet, it’s the sometimes heart-wrenching reality of personal growth. The part when caring for yourself means letting go of people not mean to grow with you….
Very often, especially as women, we’re socialized into groups and relationships that are supposed to last a lifetime. These are the friendships from “back in the day”, the associations from “way back when”, that we’re too attached to release, even when it’s clear they are no longer working in our favor. So we stay and hang around, and suppress that little voice inside telling us it is time to move on. So we shrink a little more, and a little more, to fit into boxes we’ve outgrown, for the sake of not shaking the boat…Yet, despite all your best efforts, you find yourself stagnating, not just in that relationship, but in many if not all areas of your life.
Beyond weekly manicures and pedicures, self-care also means letting go of those not meant to grow with you. While being a complex process, this release process is all too often necessary. While certainly challenging, it doesn’t have to be a drastic or dramatic process. Often, it’s just a matter of re-classifying relationships in a way that truly reflects who you are and your process of growth, which may require a few steps:
Trust yourself
How many times have you gotten this sense in your gut that things weren’t quite right? And how many times have you silenced your own instincts, preferring to trust the comfort of old habits?
The first step to releasing relationships that are no longer meant for us (or were never meant for us) is to trust ourselves. Our bodies will tell us when something is not quite right. We’ll sense it in our gut. The key is to trust ourselves.
Release in peace
Letting go, be it of relationships, associations, or jobs, does not have to be a dramatic process. Being at peace as we release what is no longer meant for us helps us keep a clear mind and spirit as we move on to the next step in our lives, on purpose.
While there may be times when confrontation is unavoidable, as much as possible, keep your peace.
More acceptance, less resistance
The difficulty in letting go of what or who is not meant to grow with us is often a matter of resistance. It’s hard to accept that we’ve been used to for so long, whether it’s a friendship, a romantic relationship, or a career, is coming to an end. So we resist and struggle to maintain the status quo, instead of accepting things as they are.
Being accepting of what is does not mean being complacent and taking whatever comes at face value. It simply means believing you are provided for at all times, and something or someone leaving is only making room for better.
