Raising an Anti-Racist Generation

To be honest, I have no idea what I am talking about here, but I have a referral for you all.

On Janet Lansbury's Respectful Parenting podcast, she recently had a guest expert on bias. The expert's name is Jennifer Eberhardt and she is the author of the best-selling book Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do and a professor at Stanford University.

(diverse peg people from Lake Michigan Baby on Etsy)

Jennifer and Janet "discuss how racial bias develops in the brain and creates disparities in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and the criminal justice system. As the mother of three sons, Jennifer has also witnessed the effects of bias in real time. She and Janet explore some of the steps parents can take to combat the development of bias in their children. “Preschoolers are picking this up and determining who’s a good person, who’s a bad person… They need our help in comprehending what’s going on around them and helping them to make sense of it.”


The podcast is absolutely fascinating and I highly recommend it if you are feeling helpless as a parent who wants to raise anti-racist children but has no idea what you are doing.

As I am writing this I am realizing that I haven't even finished this podcast episode and still need to. So I'm definitely not perfect. But I am trying to do my part.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Me Discovering That There Are No Mom Hacks

Image
There are certain things that I have tried to hack as a mom that I am realizing I simply have to put more work into. For example, toilet learning. I did early potty training with Clark in hopes that he would start taking care of it himself soon. I have been realizing that if I want him to get into the habit of using the potty, I have to be more disciplined before he will be. I have to get up and take him when I know it is time to go. I have to believe that he has to go when he is showing signals even if it is inconvenient and I would be disappointed if nothing ended up coming out. If I am expecting him to change his habits to something less convenient for him, I have to change my habits to something less convenient for me. On the other hand, with feeding Clark. I have tried to set out lots of snacks for him to eat. But I'm realizing that that results in him eating tiny amounts at a time and being perpetually hungry to the point where he can't get into flow with any work. And wi
Read more

Gobbi Mobile

Image
 The Gobbi Mobile was designed by Gianna Gobbi , a Montessorian and Catholic educator who studied under Maria Montessori.  It is a series of 5 balls, all in the same color but different shades. The balls are hung in a line along a 45 degree angle.The lightest shade is furthest from the baby and the darkest shade is closest. Most people find that their babies become interested in it around 8-10 weeks. At this point, babies are supposedly able to start distinguishing different shades. You can see them moving their eyes from ball to ball. This could be because they are distinguishing shades, or practicing adjusting their focus for different distance, or both. If the balls are moving, they may practice object tracking. This mobile has no angles like the previous two had. A popular Montessori principle is to isolate, or at least pare down, how many concepts are taught at once. So this mobile focuses only on shade and height, not on angles or different colors.
Read more

Our Experience Foregoing the Swaddle

 A lot of Montessori parents avoid swaddling their newborns in the name of allowing freedom of movement. This idea makes me incredibly nervous but I have been trying it and it hasn’t been too bad. I do use white noise liberally however, and that does work wonders. I see Howie calm immediately when I put it on. I also feel like he doesn’t startle as easily as Clark did. I kept Clark swaddled even when he wasn’t sleeping. I also want to get one of those Nested Bean Zen sacks and try it out because Howie is getting more restless as he is no longer a sleepy newborn.
Read more