Teaching Your Child About Social Justice

As parents and caregivers, one of the most important jobs we have is to help our  learn and grow. Sometimes teaching our children topics that others might shy away from are essential which is why tackling topics such as social justice is so important. It’s even more so important because of all that is happening in the world around us with the recent murder of  an unarmed African American man, George Floyd. He was killed while being arrested by a white  Minneapolis police officer who kept his knee on the right side of Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. 2 minutes and 53 seconds of which occurred after the man became unresponsive.

Unless you’ve been living underneath a rock the past week or so, this event has triggered a nation-wide movement which has resulted in both peaceful and violent protesting and rioting, additional arrests,  upset feelings, social unrest and more. I have personally been attacked for my viewpoints and thoughts on the matter, and I have seen others attacked for theirs. It doesn’t matter the skin color, gender or orientation sharing their opinion, the feelings and opinions, unless shared by those viewing it, will be argued against. Unfortunately, it’s the world we’re living in, which is why it’s so important that we teach our children what social justice is. Unfortunately we live in a time that it exists all around us.

By placing high values in these difficult situations, it help ensure that we are raising our children to welcome people different than themselves into a society where they feel welcomed and valued. I want my children to be compassionate and care for others. I want them to stand up for what is right and to have a voice of their own so that they can help change the world with that voice so that they can make the world a better place for everyone.

It’s important that we are open and honest with our children that the world is not always a fair or kind place, but there are things we can do to help guide these sometimes difficult conversations with your child.

Expose Your Child to Diversity

Try to promote diversity by choosing books and toys for your child to promote conversations to talk about discrimination, diversity, social justice, human rights and other topics that might be hard to explain. Try to tackle them in a way that is age-appropriate. I have seen great books in my son’s scholastic book magazines they send home from his school. There are also great resources available on Amazon.

I also know that many local libraries focus on literacy events which focus on promoting diversity. They primarily do these during Black History Month or Women’s History Month, but check with your local library to see what they’re doing as they might be doing something differently during different times of the year or different events throughout the year.

What did they Learn- Make it a Teaching Moment

If your child attended an event at their local library, read a book, or attended play that promoted diversity, make the most of that teaching moment. Ask questions about it. What did they learn. Discuss any biases they may have had or maybe didn’t even realize they had. Ask why they might even have those opinions in the first place and give them ideas on how to change their mindset on those opinions to being more open-minded and accepting. If you’ve determined that your child has a particular hang-up on something, focus information for future teaching moments on that. I find my son saying things like “That’s for girls, not for boys..” or “Girls say that..not boys.” I’ve worked hard to tackling those stereotypes head-on.

Bread Tasting Party

This one is a fun that I found other parents had recommended, and since I’m Italian this is sure to be one I personally try. Go to the grocery store and grab various “breads from all around the world” such as pita, Italian bread, scones, tortillas, matzo, cornbread, naan, etc. From there, introduce each bread and share which culture is comes from before inviting each child and family member to taste it.

Talk about common traditions from that culture. Maybe even try to make different breads from those cultures. This could be a fun, hands-on learning activity.

Talk About What’s Going on in the News

Be mindful that there are some things you might not want your child to see depending on their age, but we’ve been sharing quite a bit with our six year old about what’s going on in the news. We have been very open with the recent news of George Floyd because my six year old has heard about it by himself and asked his father and I about it which prompted a very mature conversation not typical  for a six year old. We explained to him that sometimes bad things happen to good people at the hands of  bad people. We’ve been relatively pretty open about what happened and explained why people are upset and what has resulted because of this  man’s death. My young son asked a lot of questions, and he even grew very concerned about his friends who have different skin colors than his own.

The themes he has learned alone this past week includes discrimination, racism, social injustice, hate crimes, looting, protesting and other very critical and valuable lessons that we have had the opportunity to discuss as a family. We’re making it a point to talk openly about these situations and explain to him why things are wrong and talk to him about how he should respond in a similar situation. Similarly, I want him to know that if he witnesses someone being discriminated against or bullied, I also don’t want him to stand back and do nothing.

Participate in Charitable Giving and Back Causes

Find local causes and charities to get involved in to support as a family. This is the best way to immerse yourself and your family in situations that are different than what you’re used to seeing. Donating and giving back to those less fortunate than you is a great way to teach your children how societal roles play in creating income and social inequalities. Engage in giving food to the homeless and discuss possible reasons to the root causes behind these problems. Discuss common stigmas and stereotypes associated with the homeless community and then discuss possible societal issues revolving around housing policies and systematic problems in your local communities. Try to help find resolve in them.

If there are peaceful demonstrations in your community, get involved and explain to your children the importance of supporting those who are different than us if you believe in what they are demonstrating is for the good. We are all different, and there are demonstrations that support us in different ways for different reasons, so have open and honest conversations surrounding these.

Talk and Teach on Common Bias’s

Anti-Bias lessons are a great way to discuss and address more complex and broader issues. Here are a few ways to do just that:

• Mixing Play-dough: Give your children a few different multi-cultural colors of play-dough and encourage your children to mix the colors together as well as mix the colors together to create their own skin color. Explain the activity to uncover skin colors and race.
• Exploring Different Hair Types: Ask children to touch their hair and describe it. Then show them pictures of how people from around the world use hair to express themselves and their culture. Talk about the biases associated with different hair types and styles. To make this activity more interactive and hands-on, collect wigs, scarves, bandannas, turbans, clips, rubber bands and other items typically used to create different hairstyles.
• Every Day Images: Simply look at images from around the world and ask questions. I came across this Pinterest Board that has beautiful images of people from all around the world. This is a great place to start.

Crack the Egg Activity

This common activity is easy, but so important. Take a brown egg and a white egg. Ask the children what they believe is the difference between the two eggs, and when they answer that they notice that the main difference is that one egg color is brown and the other is white, crack each egg open one by one. Show the children how the eggs are the same on the inside, even though they both appear to look different on the outside.

Hopefully some of these are ways to broach the subject of social justice in ways that are clear and tangible for children of different ages to understand. In the times that we’re all living in, it’s even more important than ever to have these discussions so we can help make the world a more peaceful place for future generations. We do this by raising children who are more aware, more accepting, more informed and filled with more love and respect for those different than themselves.