Diversity group launches new series

‘Talking to Children About Race’ to help adults educate kids

Erie parent Alicia Graves asked the schools in her town to add diversity, equity and inclusion positions to their parent/teacher organizations as a step toward making the community feel safe for families of color, including her own.

With the diversity position established at six schools, those holding the position started getting together monthly to share ideas. The group is facilitated by Graves, who is the chairperson of the NAACP Boulder County’s Education Committee.

They originally wanted to set up a book study and author speaker series for Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley teachers. But, based on feedback, they agreed it was too much to ask teachers to take on during the pandemic.

Instead, Graves organized a vir tual series on “Talking to Children About Race” featuring Rosemarie Allen, the president and CEO of the Institute for Racial Equity & Excellence. The series was organized in conjunction with the town of Erie, while the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts agreed to provide education

credit to participating teachers.

The series, with each session aimed at talking to a different age group, starts Monday. The sessions are at 6:30 p.m. Monday for preschool, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday for elementary school, 6:30 p.m. March 15 for middle school, and 6:30 p.m. March 17 for high school.

View at erieco.gov/youtube or erieco.gov/watchmeetings.

Sessions are open to the public and are targeted to adults who want to learn more about how to talk to children and teens about race.

“As the Institute for Racial Equity, we felt it was very important to provide a professional development series for those who have the power and desire to make a dif ference,” Allen said. “After George Floyd, the questions we continue to get asked are ‘What can I do?’ and ‘How can I talk to children about race?’”

Allen said parents of children of color must teach their children about race so they don’t internalize the negativity that’s part of society. But most white families, she said, are “protected from racial issues and unrest and targeting.”

“They have the freedom and advantage of not talking about race,” she said, adding many were taught they should be “colorblind” and in turn teach that to their children.

But, she said, it’s not accurate to say children don’t see color. Children as young as 2 star t categorizing people by race and, by 4, will begin to assign value based on skin color, taking their cues from the adults around them. By 7, white children may believe black people feel less pain than they do and be less likely to help if a victim is black.

“This is why we need to talk to children about race ver y early,” she said. “We need to talk about race, talk about bias, talk about how it shows up so we can mitigate the consequences. We can’t have hope of living together in a just world if we don’t learn what it takes to do that.”

Graves said she’s seen the dif ference anti-racism education can make through the experiences of her sons, one who is Black and one who is Mexican American. Both are adopted.

When one son was 3 and in a child care program where she worked, the other children were more likely to watch him than interact, she said. One child didn’t want to hug him because “his skin was dirty,” she said.

“He came home and told me ‘my skin is too brown, my hair is too dark,’” she said. “That broke my hear t.”

In contrast, she said, a girl in a white family that talks about race became her son’s best friend.

“That awareness truly makes a difference,” she said. “It’s just so necessar y to not be blind to what your children are hearing and seeing.”