Black History Month: Time for Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward All Men

By Laura Lyles Reagan

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes abound this time of year. For Black History Month, perhaps it’s worthy to go back to his last, but timeless Christmas sermon, where he says, “The Christmas hope for peace and goodwill toward all men can no longer be dismissed as a kind of pious dream of some utopia. If we don’t have good will toward men in this world, we will destroy ourselves by the misuse of our own instruments and our own power.”

Regardless of your politics on the issues of the day, race is on the evening news. Our children are often exposed to very adult conversations about race. This reality may beg the question: How do I talk about race with my child? As with any issue, behaviorists tell us, the first rule of thumb about discussing race with children is to model the behavior you want.

Demonstrate positive race relations in practical ways in your own life. Do you have friends of other races? If most of your friends are from your own race and culture, you may want to consider opportunities for you and your child to interact with other races and cultures. Attend a different church on Sunday. Observe how they worship. Find something to appreciate about it and comment on it to your child. If you see a television program about a different culture, use the opportunity to discuss a different way of life and worldview. Find one thing you like about it and state it out loud.

Don’t assume shared understandings about race. Sociologists say that children construct differences and similarities differently than adults. Children notice differences quite early developmentally, but it may be for reasons that interest children and not as adults that define the difference.

For example, a teacher noticed that six-year-old girls on a playground were not playing with one girl in particular who was African American. The teacher listened first before intervening and found that the majority of the girls preferred to play with girls who wore their hair with ribbons instead of girls who didn’t use ribbons. The African American girl didn’t use ribbons in her hair. She was excluded from conversations and games. The girls were not excluding her because of race but because of ribbons. To adult eyes, the game looked racist but to the children controlling the game, it made sense. The teacher then noticed one girl sharing her ribbons with the African American girl. The teacher chose to intervene in that moment and praised the sharing and inclusive behavior.

Psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint, M.D, states that there are two critical development ages when race and culture questions are likely to occur. They are at ages six to eight years old, and the teenage years. These stages are times when the child’s world is expanding and their values are forming or solidifying. Responding to a child’s questions at these stages in simple, honest terms is important. Even a response of “I don’t know” or “Let’s read about that” can show you are open to learning about different cultures, customs and communities.

When your child comes home and declares a classmate has an Asian mom and a black dad and says, “Isn’t that weird? You may choose to say, “Not weird, just different.” When your teen asks what you think about his school renaming their sports teams because Native Americans find “redskins” to be offensive, you can use it as an opportunity to discuss your own believes about racial slurs while demonstrating respect that others might not see it the same way.