For the past few days, I have been struggling to figure out how to talk to my children about what is going on in the world.

It feels just like yesterday when I found myself explaining to them the COVID-19 pandemic and now I had to approach another heavy topic without completely scaring them into thinking our world has gone mad.

I chose a subtle way with my five-year-old and pulled out one of her favorite books “The Wonderful Things You Will Be” by Emily Winfield Martin. We read and then talked about kindness and standing up for what’s right. In the end, I asked my daughter which character from the book she likes the most. She immediately pointed to a little dark-color skin girl dressed as a fairy, confirming to me that kids don’t differentiate based on a skin color.  

I then braced myself to approach the subject of racial injustice with my ten-year-old son. I asked him if he would ever treat someone differently because of their skin color, religious beliefs, or political views. He looked at me like I just fell from Mars “Of course not mom! Why would you ever think that?” But I already knew the answer as my son’s friends look like the United Nations, with a whole a lot of races and religion background included. We then talked about George Floyd and about the abuse of power. We talked about the fact that not all policemen are evil, most are genuine and here to protect us. We talked about our right to peacefully protest and how wrong it is to steal and vandalize things to get our point across. We talked about God creating us all in his image and about the verse

Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. ~Mark 12:31

These conversations confirmed to me that prejudice is taught at home and by experience. If your children see you treat others with kindness and respect regardless of any differences, that is all they’ll know.