Resources for Talking to Your Kids About Race

Getty Images

It may seem like racism is a hard subject to tackle with your kids, but avoiding the subject won’t help. Discussing racism with your kids from an early age can help them become advocates for racial equality, and there’s no shame in admitting that you need to educate yourself.

This is a timely topic, and it is important to make a commitment to effect change and help raise a generation of anti-racist kids. The National Museum of African American History & Culture’s Talking About Race project lists reasons parents or caregivers would want to get involved and learn more:

I care about my child having a healthy racial identity while appreciating and respecting others.
I want to learn more about how to help my child navigate the complexities of race.
I believe my child can be an agent of change against racial inequity.

With those goals in mind, here are some other resources to help you start or continue discussions with your kids:

Table of Contents

The Center for Racial Justice in Education

Their mission is to train and empower educators to dismantle patterns of racism and injustice in our schools and communities. They have a resource page featuring interviews, articles, tools and more for talking about race, racism and racialized violence with kids.

Children’s Alliance

Children’s Alliance advocates for kids ensuring laws, policies and programs work for kids. They have resources for talking about racism and bias, discussions on institutionalized racism and more.

Common Sense Media

This site educates parents on the role of media and technology in children’s lives. Their list of resources about race and racism suggest books, movies, articles and more for media examples of diversity and starting the conversation with your kids.

EmbraceRace

EmbraceRace is committed to four goals: nurturing resilience in children of color, nurturing inclusive, empathetic children of all stripes, raising kids who think critically about racial inequity and supporting a movement of kid and adult racial justice advocates for all children. Their resources include webinars, articles, action guides, children’s books and more.

Multicultural Kid Blogs

These blogs are dedicated to raising world citizens through arts, activities, crafts, food, language and love, and they work to inspire and support parents, caregivers and educators raising the next generation of global citizens. Subjects include celebrating holidays, anti-bullying, black history, resources for raising global citizens and more.

National Education Association EdJustice

This organization engages and mobilizes activists in the fight for racial, social and economic justice in public education. You can adopt their resources for your home, including the activities and lesson plans for talking about race.

Not In Our Town

This movement is committed to stopping hate, racism and bullying and building safe, inclusive communities for all. They provide information for communities, schools and law enforcement and cover the topics of racism, white nationalism, hate crimes and more.

Parent Toolkit

Produced by NBC News Learn and supported by Pearson, Parent Toolkit provides parents with a guide to help children succeed in school and life. Check out “Five Ways to Encourage and Celebrate Diversity with Early Learners” for a look at ways to discuss race with toddlers and young children.

Teaching Tolerance

This site provides free resources to educators to help children and youth be active participants in a diverse democracy. Topics include race and ethnicity, religion, ability, class and more. Their race and ethnicity resources can help you facilitate discussions about white privilege, economic inequality, mass incarceration and more.