But those parents should have intervened. They should’ve said something. My daughter was watching. Their daughters were watching.
White parents: TALK TO YOUR KIDS ABOUT RACE. I know it’s uncomfortable. But the rest of us do it all the time. We need you to do it too.— Dr. Mathangi Subramanian (@mathangiwrites) April 18, 2019
And friends, she’s right. As white parents, we are not forced to have conversations with our kids about the color of their skin. The world around us looks a lot like us. In my lifetime as a white woman, I’ve never had to be aware of the color of my skin or of my blonde hair.
But we have to do better. If our fellow parents and friends are having these conversations with their kids out of necessity, we also need to be. It can be awkward, you may not have the right words, and you’ll probably mess up a time or two. But isn’t that the case with any part of parenting?
We have a responsibility—especially as believers—to educate ourselves and our children about the world around us. That includes parts of the world that look different from our own reality.
Mathangi closed her compelling post with one last comment for anyone who brushed her experience off as something she “imagined.”
“I am a dark-skinned woman who has been on this planet for almost 40 years. I know racism when I see it. And I definitely know it when it happens to my kid.”
Just want to thank everyone who has responded and retweeted. I’m still angry, but I feel a lot less alone.
— Dr. Mathangi Subramanian (@mathangiwrites) April 18, 2019
