Dear Parents of White Children

Drake University Professor of Religion, Jennifer Harvey, wrote this open letter to white parents of white children (Huffinton Post, 8/13/2013) in response to a pattern she sees in the classroom where white students are uncomfortable talking about race.

Why are white students less able than students of color to talk openly and critically about race?  

Harvey quotes from the study Children Are Not Colorblind which found that "on average, African-American parents start talking about race with their African-American children by age 3. White parents with white kids? Age 13."  Harvey goes on to point out that when white parents of white children do talk to their children about race, they avoid the complexities of our lived experiences with platitudes like "Everybody is equal."  

Harvey writes, "Is it any wonder my white students are so racially baffled and behind? That they look like deer in headlights when I tell them we're going to talk about race in their actual lives? It's not just the fact of being white, and thus insulated from the negative affects of racism (though I believe white children are deeply harmed as well -- in different ways), that works against their developing aptitude about race and anti-racism. We, their parents, are working against them too!"

Read the full letter here.

Photo: Dr. Grover and his family. U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 64-NA-1-108