Hellobee Boards

@bees_knees: There's some good accounts I would recommend on IG. Are you on there? @theconsciouskid for a start and Ill look and see if I can find other ones, don't remember for now.

I would say books like the ones @erinbaderin mentioned are a good start, and then at the end things like: Did you know that things like this still happen today? While a lot of our laws have changed, black people still aren't treated fairly.

And then we just constantly layer on that base. Today I have been very upset about what's happening in Minneapolis. My 7 year old picked up on that, and, honestly, I told her that a police officer killed a man. She asked why, and I was able to say: You know how we have talked about how black people in this country aren't always treated fairly? Well, that's what happened here. And it's our job to use our privelege (another digression here to reflect back on previous conversations) to stand up against that. Then we talked a little about what that might look like, but she wandered away.

I don't know how your local library is, but we have found tons of great, conversation-starting books at ours. Right now, my four-year-old responds more to narrative books than straight-up biographies, and she loves fictionalized biographies where she can look at pictures of the real person in the back. The Youngest Marcher and Between Us and Abuela are the two we have at home right now that have inspired the most conversation.

Something Happened in Our Town is also great, but I haven't quite been ready to share it with my daughter yet (and incredibly privileged position, I know!).

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20670612-the-youngest-marcher

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42642073-between-us-and-abuela

There's a lot here that I'm just starting to go through.

https://www.prettygooddesign.org/blog/Blog%20Post%20Title%20One-5new4?fbclid=IwAR0mRKToNJTPb-k1W8-LCzgkRo6b0pM7jOvQSjPoPsx07MV4YWiDl3HhYb4

The Conscious Kid podcast with Layla F. Saad: http://laylafsaad.com/good-ancestor-podcast/ep014-the-conscious-kid

Raising Race Conscious Kids
Website: http://www.raceconscious.org/
Workshops: http://www.raceconscious.org/workshops-and-consultations/

List of Children’s Books:
http://www.raceconscious.org/childrens-books/

Raising Anti-Racist White Children Workshop
http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07eh168p75b6e8513b&llr=ztz88veab&showPage=true

Anti-Racist Baby a new children's book by Ibram X. Kendi out next month:
https://www.ibramxkendi.com/books-1

This has been on my mind all day. I actually just ordered this book: https://akidsbookabout.com/collections/all-products/products/a-kids-book-about-racism

We've always talked openly about what racism is, how it still happens, and what we can do. It's never been big conversations - just things that naturally come up. But I think it's time to be more deliberate with the conversations. Hoping the book is a good jumping off point.

I just came across this list an ran back to hellobee to share with all of you

https://www.todaysparent.com/family/books/kids-books-that-talk-about-racism

Thanks for posting and everyone for sharing, very helpful.

My kids are 2 and 5 months, and one thing I am doing at this point is to heavily emphasize diverse books. Many of them don't talk about racism, but I think it's useful for creating a sense of empathy and connection with a variety of people, even when you can't always do that IRL (i.e. because we've been shut up in our house for months...) I particularly like the barefoot book singalongs. My son loves the songs, and they feature a very diverse group of characters. The books are beautiful, but for all those who may not have extra money to spare for books at this point (and public libraries closed) there are videos of all these on youtube. Another favorite of my two year old is a book called "freedom soup", where the main protagonist is a Haitian-American grandmother who tells her granddaughter the story of how her people were slaves in Haiti who had to fight for their freedom.

@JJ2626: Thank you! A few of the books I had been searching for were sold out elsewhere and I found them at EyeSeeMe.