**3. Strategies for critical race parenting**

I titled this chapter, "Racist Babies?" to get at the paradox of whiteness in parenting, which is this: Although we know kids see race and make value judgments about it, children are not born racist. White children are parented into racism. Yet, given how whites have constructed whiteness norms within their families, the first time a child makes an observation about race, the parent is shocked at the audacity of their child breaking the taboo and worries that the child is racist instead of examining themselves and how whiteness is at work [28] in their parenting.

White neoliberal parents tend to avoid conversations about race with children. They do this possibly because they are in denial that race and racism are real and relevant. Perhaps they do not know what to say about race and are uncomfortable breaking the race taboo that they were raised to uphold. Or, maybe they think their children will just naturally grow up to "do the right thing." These same parents are thrown into upheaval the first time their child makes a comment on or asks a question about race. This is when, as a race scholar and white mother, my nice, white neoliberal friends come to me and explain that their child is racist and can I recommend some good kids' books that will teach their children to not be racist? One white friend's child did not like his brown-skinned swim instructor. One child pointed at a Black woman, saying she looked like a brownie. Neither of these statements are inherently racist. These white children are noticing skin color and trying to make sense of it, particularly when they have not been around many People of Color previously. My own child, when he began a new preschool class, declared that he did not like one of his teachers. "Which teacher don't you like?" I asked. "The Black one," he answered. I'll admit, even as a person who studies race and whiteness in parenting, I was taken aback with my 4 year old's comment. But, I was careful not to scold him for identifying race, which we had discussed. "You don't like Ms. Andrea?" I clarified, identifying his teacher who I'd noted was the most strict, and as he had identified had the darkest skin of all of his teachers. We then went on to have a conversation where I encouraged him to learn all of his teachers' names and also began a conversation about racism and how white people treat Black and Brown people unfairly. "That's why it's super important for us as white people to respect Black and Brown people and especially our teachers by knowing their names," I concluded.

To be honest, on the fly, I'm not sure how well I articulated any of this or how much my son understood. But, what is important is that I continue to have conversations with my children about race and racism to ensure that we are not participating in color evasive racism. This also allows me to continue to guide my children's interpretations and understanding of race and racism as they grow. Although I have a leg up on many white parents given that I am a researcher of race, racism, and whiteness, it is still crucial for all white parents, including me, to continue our work to understand how whiteness is working in ourselves, in our partners, and in our children.

Below, I offer some ParentCrit strategies, particularly for white parents who are working to parent critically conscious, socially just people, and are they themselves working to be the same. It's important to note that parenting is not the only influence that children receive that teach them about race. Certainly, a child's experience at school, in social settings, and with various media also convey messages about race to white children and Children of Color. When we as parents work with our children to develop a critical consciousness around systems of oppression, we must be working with them to interpret, critique, and dismantle those systems whether they manifest in their classroom or in their Saturday morning cartoons.

**219**

Color) [31].

*Racist Babies? Resisting Whiteness in Parenting DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91674*

every day to keep most white Americans in their bubble.

The United States is highly racially segregated in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, etc. This is not coincidental or natural. It is by design [29]. Historical and current processes and legacies have continued to disenfranchise People of Color in the United States and maintain white privilege and power. Systems such as redlining and gentrification to mass incarceration and school privatization go to work

Although this allows most white children in the US to be surrounded by other white children, white teachers, and white community, Families of Color are forced to navigate the white world to participate in systems such as economic, education, medicine, law, etc. Thus, white children raised in white enclaves develop an understanding of their white identities and their whiteness as normal, which Children of Color do not have the luxury of doing [30]. This allows for white children to then see anything that is not within these white norms as different, weird, exotic, or even

Once, after I had offered a community training on 'dismantling whiteness,' I had a white father approach me. He and his wife were upper class and white and were raising their two biological children in a wealthy white suburb. We were discussing white children and their understanding of race, and he said, "My 7 year old, Skyler, said to me yesterday, 'Dad, why are all Black people famous?'" Upon sharing this, he offered me an incredulous look in which I think he expected me to share in his utter confusion. "Does he know any Black people?" I asked. The man furrowed his brow, and said, "No, just those he sees on TV." After describing the painfully obvious connection between his child thinking all Black people were famous and how it was because he only saw Black people on TV, I went on to discuss the importance of children having relationships and engaging with racially diverse communities so as not to stereotype People of Color. The father nodded, but then added, "It's just that our neighborhood is so white." With that, he shrugged and our conversation ended. This Dad could not envision making choices about where his family lived or learned that considered his children's critical consciousness and racial awareness. Subsequently, his white son was learning about Black people from TV. This meant that the source of his son's race knowledge was and would continue to be formed by mass media, and all the racist stereotypes therein. The intergenerational whiteness was being almost perfectly maintained in this nice, white, neoliberal family. My point here is that environment matters when you want to raise critically conscious, socially just children. Within the higher education Affirmative Action<sup>2</sup> struggle, those defending Affirmative Action have argued about the importance of a *Critical Mass* of Students of Color within the college classroom. They argue that this critical mass is important for all students to have a rich and diverse college experience. Part of this idea is that if you have only one or two Students of Color in an otherwise all-white classroom, the white students are more likely to tokenize and stereotype the few Students of Color. This argument fairly suggests that white college students upon meeting a Student of Color (often one of the first People of Color they have met) are likely to make sweeping generalizations about an entire racial group based on the experiences with that one Person of Color. Thus, a critical mass is achieved when there is enough diversity in the diversity (coded as People of

<sup>2</sup> Affirmative Action is a legal precedent in the United States that has allowed for race to be considered in Higher Education admissions, historically to allow access to People of Color. Since its inception, it has

been continuously challenged and dismantled in the Supreme Court [31]

**3.1 Diversify your environment**

deviant or bad.

### **3.1 Diversify your environment**

*Parenting - Studies by an Ecocultural and Transactional Perspective*

themselves and how whiteness is at work [28] in their parenting.

I titled this chapter, "Racist Babies?" to get at the paradox of whiteness in parenting, which is this: Although we know kids see race and make value judgments about it, children are not born racist. White children are parented into racism. Yet, given how whites have constructed whiteness norms within their families, the first time a child makes an observation about race, the parent is shocked at the audacity of their child breaking the taboo and worries that the child is racist instead of examining

White neoliberal parents tend to avoid conversations about race with children. They do this possibly because they are in denial that race and racism are real and relevant. Perhaps they do not know what to say about race and are uncomfortable breaking the race taboo that they were raised to uphold. Or, maybe they think their children will just naturally grow up to "do the right thing." These same parents are thrown into upheaval the first time their child makes a comment on or asks a question about race. This is when, as a race scholar and white mother, my nice, white neoliberal friends come to me and explain that their child is racist and can I recommend some good kids' books that will teach their children to not be racist? One white friend's child did not like his brown-skinned swim instructor. One child pointed at a Black woman, saying she looked like a brownie. Neither of these statements are inherently racist. These white children are noticing skin color and trying to make sense of it, particularly when they have not been around many People of Color previously. My own child, when he began a new preschool class, declared that he did not like one of his teachers. "Which teacher don't you like?" I asked. "The Black one," he answered. I'll admit, even as a person who studies race and whiteness in parenting, I was taken aback with my 4 year old's comment. But, I was careful not to scold him for identifying race, which we had discussed. "You don't like Ms. Andrea?" I clarified, identifying his teacher who I'd noted was the most strict, and as he had identified had the darkest skin of all of his teachers. We then went on to have a conversation where I encouraged him to learn all of his teachers' names and also began a conversation about racism and how white people treat Black and Brown people unfairly. "That's why it's super important for us as white people to respect Black and Brown people and especially our teachers by knowing their names," I

To be honest, on the fly, I'm not sure how well I articulated any of this or how much my son understood. But, what is important is that I continue to have conversations with my children about race and racism to ensure that we are not participating in color evasive racism. This also allows me to continue to guide my children's interpretations and understanding of race and racism as they grow. Although I have a leg up on many white parents given that I am a researcher of race, racism, and whiteness, it is still crucial for all white parents, including me, to continue our work to understand how whiteness is working in ourselves, in our partners, and in our

Below, I offer some ParentCrit strategies, particularly for white parents who are working to parent critically conscious, socially just people, and are they themselves working to be the same. It's important to note that parenting is not the only influence that children receive that teach them about race. Certainly, a child's experience at school, in social settings, and with various media also convey messages about race to white children and Children of Color. When we as parents work with our children to develop a critical consciousness around systems of oppression, we must be working with them to interpret, critique, and dismantle those systems whether they manifest in their classroom or in their Saturday

**3. Strategies for critical race parenting**

**218**

morning cartoons.

concluded.

children.

The United States is highly racially segregated in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, etc. This is not coincidental or natural. It is by design [29]. Historical and current processes and legacies have continued to disenfranchise People of Color in the United States and maintain white privilege and power. Systems such as redlining and gentrification to mass incarceration and school privatization go to work every day to keep most white Americans in their bubble.

Although this allows most white children in the US to be surrounded by other white children, white teachers, and white community, Families of Color are forced to navigate the white world to participate in systems such as economic, education, medicine, law, etc. Thus, white children raised in white enclaves develop an understanding of their white identities and their whiteness as normal, which Children of Color do not have the luxury of doing [30]. This allows for white children to then see anything that is not within these white norms as different, weird, exotic, or even deviant or bad.

Once, after I had offered a community training on 'dismantling whiteness,' I had a white father approach me. He and his wife were upper class and white and were raising their two biological children in a wealthy white suburb. We were discussing white children and their understanding of race, and he said, "My 7 year old, Skyler, said to me yesterday, 'Dad, why are all Black people famous?'" Upon sharing this, he offered me an incredulous look in which I think he expected me to share in his utter confusion. "Does he know any Black people?" I asked. The man furrowed his brow, and said, "No, just those he sees on TV." After describing the painfully obvious connection between his child thinking all Black people were famous and how it was because he only saw Black people on TV, I went on to discuss the importance of children having relationships and engaging with racially diverse communities so as not to stereotype People of Color. The father nodded, but then added, "It's just that our neighborhood is so white." With that, he shrugged and our conversation ended. This Dad could not envision making choices about where his family lived or learned that considered his children's critical consciousness and racial awareness. Subsequently, his white son was learning about Black people from TV. This meant that the source of his son's race knowledge was and would continue to be formed by mass media, and all the racist stereotypes therein. The intergenerational whiteness was being almost perfectly maintained in this nice, white, neoliberal family.

My point here is that environment matters when you want to raise critically conscious, socially just children. Within the higher education Affirmative Action<sup>2</sup> struggle, those defending Affirmative Action have argued about the importance of a *Critical Mass* of Students of Color within the college classroom. They argue that this critical mass is important for all students to have a rich and diverse college experience. Part of this idea is that if you have only one or two Students of Color in an otherwise all-white classroom, the white students are more likely to tokenize and stereotype the few Students of Color. This argument fairly suggests that white college students upon meeting a Student of Color (often one of the first People of Color they have met) are likely to make sweeping generalizations about an entire racial group based on the experiences with that one Person of Color. Thus, a critical mass is achieved when there is enough diversity in the diversity (coded as People of Color) [31].

<sup>2</sup> Affirmative Action is a legal precedent in the United States that has allowed for race to be considered in Higher Education admissions, historically to allow access to People of Color. Since its inception, it has been continuously challenged and dismantled in the Supreme Court [31]

I bring this up, because if knowing and working with People of Color is actually important to the white neoliberal groups that largely serve as the leadership, faculty, staff, and students of predominantly white institutions of higher education, why is it not important to raise those same white children in community with People of Color? My point is that, of course, environment is crucial in raising critically conscious, socially just children and families.

#### **3.2 Engage in race and racism talk**

When I began talking with my first child at three about race, I was shocked at how color evasive my descriptions were. Things like "People have different skin colors but we're all the same" or describing racism as "People treating people with other skin colors bad," just fell out of my mouth. I was quick to correct myself, particularly on the latter comment to say "When white people treat people with Black or Brown skin bad…" But, horrified, I stumbled through conversations while my preschooler quickly lost interest in my race lessons. I realized that like any good educator, I needed to plan out what I wanted my child to understand and then back track to identify and teach the building blocks to that concept. I wanted my kids to understand racism at the individual but also the systemic levels and I also wanted them to confront it when they saw it.

I started by identifying key concepts, equating race with skin color while simultaneously reading books and talking about the US enslavement of Africans and the stealing of native lands. I then introduced the concept of racism. This worked as a good transition. When my son understood race and also the history of race in the US, particularly around enslavement, it was easier to show how racism only went in one direction, given that white people had historically created the concept of race and used it to steal rights and power [32]. Yet, my previous research helped me understand that white kids often understand racism as happening only in the past and only in the south. So, I also offered my children examples of racism, including those from the news or even comments or things I noticed. We would discuss police shootings of Black people. We would discuss how racism was working in our leaders' justification of separating Latinx children from their parents at the US/Mexican border. My partner and I and our friends would discuss race and racism openly in front of the kids, whether or not they were paying attention. These ongoing race conversations not only helped my children build their understanding of race and racism, but it also gave them permission and even encouragement to bring up race topics and to ask questions of their own.

#### **3.3 Engage intersectionality**

As a critical race scholar, I was laser focused on my white-presenting boys' understanding race and racism. When they would talk about gender or something being a girls' toy, I would say little more than "There is no such thing as a girls' toy." Shortly after my oldest son began public elementary school, a fourth grade Latinx boy within our school district died by suicide shortly after he had come out as gay. Immediately, all of the heteronormative and gender-binary school traditions that I had kept quiet about became urgent to correct. As I saw it, the public school system of which we were part was scapegoating children as bullies and letting themselves off the hook for all of the practices that said "you (cisgender conforming child) are normal, and you (nonconforming child) do not belong and deserve your isolation." These practices included the lining up after the school bell by binary gender, no bathroom options for trans or gender nonconforming students, and allowing the gender policing of children (e.g., teasing a boy who used a pink crayon).

**221**

*Racist Babies? Resisting Whiteness in Parenting DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91674*

**3.4 Critique child media with kids**

depiction of a Mexican story.

over the indigenous peoples and land.

Interestingly, we had family friends who were laser-focused on gender and LGBTIQ+ issues to the detriment of discussions of other systems of oppression, including race. I think it's difficult for parents who hold multiple forms of privilege and dominant identities to hold these all together at the same time, whereas parents who combat multiple forms of oppression, do not have the luxury of isolating one with their children. Indeed, intersectionality is meant to combat the rendering of queer Black women as invisible [33, 34] Reading Audre Lorde's words [35] makes this clear. She simultaneously holds her identities as mother, scholar, Black, woman, and lesbian as she navigates raising her Black children. There is no moment where she forgets that she and her children are Black or that she is raising her children as a

lesbian woman. She holds them all and navigates them simultaneously.

This is not the case for white, heteronormative parents. So, we must do the work to understand how these systems of white supremacism, patriarchy, classism, heteronormativity, ableism, etc. are all working simultaneously for or against our children. Holding our understanding, oppression, and dominance together as we raise our kids, and not letting one system or another go because they will not oppress our kids directly today is vital. The point here is that we cannot teach anybody, including our children, how any system of oppression really works without understanding and offering an intersectional approach. We cannot fully understand white supremacy without understanding patriarchy, nor can we understand patriarchy without ableism, or ableism without classism and so on. So, as we work to build critical consciousness in our children, we must not set aside any part of the story.

It feels like new kids' movies come out by the week these days, and, luckily, there

is generally a critique of each new film. I actually included my racial critique of *Zootopia* in a 2018 article [1], showing how it drew on white saviority, racial stereotypes, and color evasive racism to form its storyline. By most accounts, children's movies seem to be getting better and more thoughtful. For example, consider the 1995 Disney film, *Pocahontas*, along with its stereotyping of indigenous people as noble or savage with the 2017 Pixar film *Coco*, which is a beautiful and thoughtful

Yet, when we take a comprehensive look at child media we still see the same problematic depictions of race, i.e., racial stereotypes, color evasions, and other racial fictions. For instance, while the first Frozen movie, happily avoided race by making every notable character in it lily white, Frozen II tried to make up for it by depicting a racially ambiguous indigenous group that was having their way of life stolen by an unambiguously white king. While this may have paralleled the settler colonialist history and stolen lands of the United States, the movie ends with the two white granddaughters of the colonizer-king saving the day, the land, and restoring justice, which included one of the white sisters (Elsa) becoming queen

The point I want to make here is that I do not think we should keep children from seeing the latest Disney or Pixar film, but we should be diligent about critiquing storylines and messages within media with our kids. We should be deconstructing both the explicit and hidden messages in children's movies with our kids. This demonstrates to them that they cannot take what they see at face value even in their seemingly morally resplendent movies. When we describe what we see in the movies and critical interpretations of the media our children are watching, they learn to not only question what they see and understand, but learn that it's important to do so. Soon enough, we will not need to bring up racist stereotypes or white savior storylines in the movies our children are watching; pretty soon, they'll catch it and point it out before we do.

#### *Racist Babies? Resisting Whiteness in Parenting DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91674*

*Parenting - Studies by an Ecocultural and Transactional Perspective*

conscious, socially just children and families.

**3.2 Engage in race and racism talk**

them to confront it when they saw it.

topics and to ask questions of their own.

**3.3 Engage intersectionality**

I bring this up, because if knowing and working with People of Color is actually important to the white neoliberal groups that largely serve as the leadership, faculty, staff, and students of predominantly white institutions of higher education, why is it not important to raise those same white children in community with People of Color? My point is that, of course, environment is crucial in raising critically

When I began talking with my first child at three about race, I was shocked at how color evasive my descriptions were. Things like "People have different skin colors but we're all the same" or describing racism as "People treating people with other skin colors bad," just fell out of my mouth. I was quick to correct myself, particularly on the latter comment to say "When white people treat people with Black or Brown skin bad…" But, horrified, I stumbled through conversations while my preschooler quickly lost interest in my race lessons. I realized that like any good educator, I needed to plan out what I wanted my child to understand and then back track to identify and teach the building blocks to that concept. I wanted my kids to understand racism at the individual but also the systemic levels and I also wanted

I started by identifying key concepts, equating race with skin color while simultaneously reading books and talking about the US enslavement of Africans and the stealing of native lands. I then introduced the concept of racism. This worked as a good transition. When my son understood race and also the history of race in the US, particularly around enslavement, it was easier to show how racism only went in one direction, given that white people had historically created the concept of race and used it to steal rights and power [32]. Yet, my previous research helped me understand that white kids often understand racism as happening only in the past and only in the south. So, I also offered my children examples of racism, including those from the news or even comments or things I noticed. We would discuss police shootings of Black people. We would discuss how racism was working in our leaders' justification of separating Latinx children from their parents at the US/Mexican border. My partner and I and our friends would discuss race and racism openly in front of the kids, whether or not they were paying attention. These ongoing race conversations not only helped my children build their understanding of race and racism, but it also gave them permission and even encouragement to bring up race

As a critical race scholar, I was laser focused on my white-presenting boys' understanding race and racism. When they would talk about gender or something being a girls' toy, I would say little more than "There is no such thing as a girls' toy." Shortly after my oldest son began public elementary school, a fourth grade Latinx boy within our school district died by suicide shortly after he had come out as gay. Immediately, all of the heteronormative and gender-binary school traditions that I had kept quiet about became urgent to correct. As I saw it, the public school system of which we were part was scapegoating children as bullies and letting themselves off the hook for all of the practices that said "you (cisgender conforming child) are normal, and you (nonconforming child) do not belong and deserve your isolation." These practices included the lining up after the school bell by binary gender, no bathroom options for trans or gender nonconforming students, and allowing the

gender policing of children (e.g., teasing a boy who used a pink crayon).

**220**

Interestingly, we had family friends who were laser-focused on gender and LGBTIQ+ issues to the detriment of discussions of other systems of oppression, including race. I think it's difficult for parents who hold multiple forms of privilege and dominant identities to hold these all together at the same time, whereas parents who combat multiple forms of oppression, do not have the luxury of isolating one with their children. Indeed, intersectionality is meant to combat the rendering of queer Black women as invisible [33, 34] Reading Audre Lorde's words [35] makes this clear. She simultaneously holds her identities as mother, scholar, Black, woman, and lesbian as she navigates raising her Black children. There is no moment where she forgets that she and her children are Black or that she is raising her children as a lesbian woman. She holds them all and navigates them simultaneously.

This is not the case for white, heteronormative parents. So, we must do the work to understand how these systems of white supremacism, patriarchy, classism, heteronormativity, ableism, etc. are all working simultaneously for or against our children. Holding our understanding, oppression, and dominance together as we raise our kids, and not letting one system or another go because they will not oppress our kids directly today is vital. The point here is that we cannot teach anybody, including our children, how any system of oppression really works without understanding and offering an intersectional approach. We cannot fully understand white supremacy without understanding patriarchy, nor can we understand patriarchy without ableism, or ableism without classism and so on. So, as we work to build critical consciousness in our children, we must not set aside any part of the story.

#### **3.4 Critique child media with kids**

It feels like new kids' movies come out by the week these days, and, luckily, there is generally a critique of each new film. I actually included my racial critique of *Zootopia* in a 2018 article [1], showing how it drew on white saviority, racial stereotypes, and color evasive racism to form its storyline. By most accounts, children's movies seem to be getting better and more thoughtful. For example, consider the 1995 Disney film, *Pocahontas*, along with its stereotyping of indigenous people as noble or savage with the 2017 Pixar film *Coco*, which is a beautiful and thoughtful depiction of a Mexican story.

Yet, when we take a comprehensive look at child media we still see the same problematic depictions of race, i.e., racial stereotypes, color evasions, and other racial fictions. For instance, while the first Frozen movie, happily avoided race by making every notable character in it lily white, Frozen II tried to make up for it by depicting a racially ambiguous indigenous group that was having their way of life stolen by an unambiguously white king. While this may have paralleled the settler colonialist history and stolen lands of the United States, the movie ends with the two white granddaughters of the colonizer-king saving the day, the land, and restoring justice, which included one of the white sisters (Elsa) becoming queen over the indigenous peoples and land.

The point I want to make here is that I do not think we should keep children from seeing the latest Disney or Pixar film, but we should be diligent about critiquing storylines and messages within media with our kids. We should be deconstructing both the explicit and hidden messages in children's movies with our kids. This demonstrates to them that they cannot take what they see at face value even in their seemingly morally resplendent movies. When we describe what we see in the movies and critical interpretations of the media our children are watching, they learn to not only question what they see and understand, but learn that it's important to do so. Soon enough, we will not need to bring up racist stereotypes or white savior storylines in the movies our children are watching; pretty soon, they'll catch it and point it out before we do.

These discussions also reinforce that race talk is okay and encouraged. My white-presenting son received a Black Panther costume as a gift from his grandparents around Halloween last year. Although he already had planned to be a video game character for trick or treating, he told me he thought he might wear his Black Panther costume to school. My son's school is made-up of mostly Black and Brown students, and I worried about my son co-opting one of the few Black heroes available to Kids of Color.

"I actually don't think you should wear your Black Panther costume out of the house," I said to my son." "Why not?" he asked. "Well, because Black Panther is a Black super hero, and because of racism, there aren't a lot of Black super heroes that look like Black and Brown kids. But there are a whole bunch that look more like you, so I think we should treat Black Panther as a special super hero that just Black and Brown kids get to dress up as at school." "Ok," my son resolved quickly, "I think I'll be a Harry Potter character for school then." "Perfect!" I said.

## **4. Concluding thoughts**

When we normalize race and racism conversations with our children, we build their skills and critical consciousness. In Beverly Tatum's book [25], she mentions a white kid that asked her Black son if his skin was brown because he drank too much chocolate milk. Children, including white children, are trying to make sense of their world and their social interactions. They pick up on who gets included and who does not, on who's considered beautiful, and who is not, on who's considered smart and who is not. If we do not advise them in this sense making process, we should not then be surprised when, in the next round of doll studies they tell us that the white doll is good and beautiful and the Black doll is bad.

White parents have got to set aside their fear of race talk, shrug off the taboo, and educate themselves on how race works in the US and how they and their white skin are normalized and privileged. Only then can we educate the next generation of children to resist whiteness and make strides toward equity and justice, instead of just reframing whiteness to trick ourselves as we raise the next generation of racist babies.

#### **Acknowledgements**

I dedicate this chapter to my children and those of the next generation. May we invest in you critical consciousness and social justice, along with our hopes and dreams.

**223**

**Author details**

Naomi W. Nishi

University of Colorado Denver, Denver, United States of America

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

\*Address all correspondence to: naomi.nishi@ucdenver.edu

provided the original work is properly cited.

*Racist Babies? Resisting Whiteness in Parenting DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91674* *Racist Babies? Resisting Whiteness in Parenting DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91674*

*Parenting - Studies by an Ecocultural and Transactional Perspective*

be a Harry Potter character for school then." "Perfect!" I said.

white doll is good and beautiful and the Black doll is bad.

able to Kids of Color.

**4. Concluding thoughts**

racist babies.

dreams.

**Acknowledgements**

These discussions also reinforce that race talk is okay and encouraged. My white-presenting son received a Black Panther costume as a gift from his grandparents around Halloween last year. Although he already had planned to be a video game character for trick or treating, he told me he thought he might wear his Black Panther costume to school. My son's school is made-up of mostly Black and Brown students, and I worried about my son co-opting one of the few Black heroes avail-

"I actually don't think you should wear your Black Panther costume out of the house," I said to my son." "Why not?" he asked. "Well, because Black Panther is a Black super hero, and because of racism, there aren't a lot of Black super heroes that look like Black and Brown kids. But there are a whole bunch that look more like you, so I think we should treat Black Panther as a special super hero that just Black and Brown kids get to dress up as at school." "Ok," my son resolved quickly, "I think I'll

When we normalize race and racism conversations with our children, we build their skills and critical consciousness. In Beverly Tatum's book [25], she mentions a white kid that asked her Black son if his skin was brown because he drank too much chocolate milk. Children, including white children, are trying to make sense of their world and their social interactions. They pick up on who gets included and who does not, on who's considered beautiful, and who is not, on who's considered smart and who is not. If we do not advise them in this sense making process, we should not then be surprised when, in the next round of doll studies they tell us that the

White parents have got to set aside their fear of race talk, shrug off the taboo, and educate themselves on how race works in the US and how they and their white skin are normalized and privileged. Only then can we educate the next generation of children to resist whiteness and make strides toward equity and justice, instead of just reframing whiteness to trick ourselves as we raise the next generation of

I dedicate this chapter to my children and those of the next generation. May we invest in you critical consciousness and social justice, along with our hopes and

**222**
