HOW DO WE REACT TO RACISM AROUND KIDS?

My Carlsbad neighborhood bubble had been dealing stoically with the pandemic for eight months. We needed a break and decided to take a road trip to the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa — we were sold on the lazy river and water slides. We drove up on a peaceful Sunday afternoon.

In the morning, my son Noah and I grabbed breakfast and were walking back to our “spot” near the lazy river. As we passed the winding stairs up to the slides, I saw my daughter Eva climbing with her friends. I yelled out to her, and then I heard someone yell back at me and my son ... “Go back to China!”

As the leader of a social justice nonprofit organization, I had heard community stories and watched videos of this type of thing. But I had not experienced firsthand such open racism since my days growing up in Dallas. The questions came. How to react? No, how to respond? And how would my actions impact my kids ... not just on this vacation but for the rest of their lives?

I looked up and saw three giggling boys who looked to be of middle school age. I am sure they assumed I would just ignore them or wave my fist and shout back in anger. Instead, I handed my coffee to my son and started running up the stairs. When I reached them, they were frantically proclaiming their innocence.

I took a picture, told them I would see them later, and headed straight to the front desk. There, I explained to the manager what had happened and shared the photo. He was exactly the type of ally you need in this situation: calmly listening, empathizing and promising he would take care of the situation.

As I sat down with my family to finally eat my breakfast, an extremely large, muscular man with inked-up arms approached. Yes, he was their father.

He wasn’t confrontational, but he was definitely terse. He asked me what was going on with his kids, and I walked him away from my family and neighbors and explained. He quietly nodded, said he understood and left.

Ten minutes later he returned with three bawling kids in tow. I walked them away from everyone and