Structural Oppression & Solutions

If race is largely a social construct, then teaching children about it will only perpetuate racism — right? Wrong: Studies show precisely the opposite. Open conversations about race and racism can make white children less prejudiced and can increase the self-esteem of children of color. If states ban the teaching of critical race theory , as conservative lawmakers in many are attempting to do , or if schools don’t provide consistent education about racism and discrimination, it’s imperative...

By Nicole Lynn Lewis and Vinice Davis, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, July 13, 2021 When Ariel Ventura-Lazo’s son was born, he had a lot on his mind. Would he be a good father? Would he be able to support his young family as the bills piled up? He had tried community college while working full time shortly after graduating from high school, but he didn’t do well and figured college wasn’t for him. Now that he was a father, he realized his job as a cash vault teller wouldn’t pay the bills and...

By Olafimihan Oshin, The Hill, July 12, 2021 First lady Jill Biden is partnering with "Sesame Street" and t he United Services Automobile Association (USAA) to help military families discuss race with their children. In a joint statement, "Sesame Street" and the USAA shared their joint partnership by releasing a new collection of resources for military families on the discussion of race and diversity. These new resources will be a part of "Sesame Street’s" Coming Together initiative for...

By Dwayne Curry, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, June 16, 2021 My wife and I have been married since 2019, but we’ve known each other since we were 14-year-olds. We are raising a blended family. She has a daughter who is 9 and a 7-year-old son. I have a son who is 8, and together we have a 2-year-old son. The pandemic has profoundly shaped my parenting experience in numerous ways. I had to transform my house into a combined virtual school, daycare, and work setting. The last year has...

By Casey Parks, The New Yorker, June 14, 2021 W hen Victoria Bradley was in fifth grade, she started asking her mother, Bernita, to homeschool her. Bernita wasn’t sure where the idea came from—they never saw homeschooling on TV. But something always seemed to be going wrong at school for Victoria. In second grade, a teacher lost track of her during parent pickup, and she wandered off school grounds. Bernita went to see the principal, intent on getting the teacher fired. The principal asked...

Originally published on Rise to Resilience on June 6th. Last week in one of the preschool-related Facebook groups I was in (and subsequently was kicked out of for challenging homophobia and transphobia), there was a post asking if people celebrate Pride Month in their classrooms, and if so, what they do. Cue a flood of teachers expressing their significant opposition for such inclusion, including ones who claimed to be allies. Motivated by this, I decided I would start...

By Alex Daniels , June 3, 2021, for the Chronicles of Philanthropy News about the police killing of George Floyd was everywhere. Officials at the Berkeley, Calif., school, where Perfecta Oxholm’s son attended kindergarten last year, decided not to talk directly about the death with the students. That didn’t stop the children from asking questions. Over the next year, an anti-racism group started by Oxholm delved into ways parents could answer those questions and discuss race with their...

Immigration can be complex. It may have different repercussions for families and individuals, especially children. Some immigrant families have the money to consult third-party advisers for their move to another country. But most immigrant families have experienced hardships, such as financial difficulties, social inequality, cultural barriers. These factors affect different generations of their family (1) . The individuals most susceptible to mental issues are the children. Even though...

By Shinwha Whang, Greater Good Magazine, May 24, 2021 Like many kids growing up in the United States, I came of age straddling two cultures: that of my family’s country of origin, and mainstream/majority American culture. There was a significant Asian-American community where I grew up, and among my friends I saw many ways in which families negotiated these two cultures. Some families spoke their first language at home, some didn’t. Some ate their heritage foods for all their meals, some...

By David Oliver, USA TODAY, May 12, 2021 It's Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and one great way to mark the month is by educating yourself — and your children — about the community through reading. Given the proliferation of violence against the community, knowledge is power. Children can start to internalize race and gender stereotypes as early as 4 years old, Dr. Christia Brown, a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Kentucky, previously told USA...

By Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker, May 5, 2021 F or the past two years, Keldy Mabel Gonzáles Brebe de Zúniga kept a daily ritual. Rising before dawn, she’d walk toward the border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where four bridges lead into El Paso, and visualize herself on the other side. She’s a religious woman known to friends, family, and acquaintances as la pastora , or the pastor. In Juárez, she devoted herself to the city’s population of migrants. Recently deported families would call her...

It’s been all over the news for months: Black women in the United States are dying from complications during their pregnancies or in childbirth at alarming rates, and those deaths are preventable. Less well explored is how systemic racism and historical trauma have been at the core of what’s driven up these rates over several decades. A March 20 conference entitled The Impact of ACEs on Black Maternal Health took an in-depth look into why Black maternal mortality and complications during...