Kids spend a great deal of time in school; so raising them is the province, not just of parents, but of teachers as well. In my 20-plus years of teaching, I have seen so many of the truths that Jennifer Harvey communicates in Raising White Kids born out. Her examples and practical suggestions for engaging white kids on the subject of racial injustice make this work unique and help allay some of the helplessness felt by those who wish they could do something but don’t know what to do. I highly recommend it to anyone who works with children and young adults.
Harvey’s work resonated with me because of my own experience as an educator. For the past two years I have been involved with organizing speaker symposiums and advisory times (in conjunction with a student cohort) at the Christian, affluent, predominantly white high school where I teach. The student and faculty cohort chose to address the topics of race and then privilege for the first two symposiums. Some valuable and much-needed conversation and connections came about as a result. However, in spite of our attempts to equip students with knowledge and examples of productive action, we experienced a significant degree of backlash from parents whose concerns included wanting to know why their children were being made “to feel bad” about being white.
Some students, while convinced of our need to have such discussions, expressed trepidation at how their peers would respond. In the absence of much groundwork being laid regarding what it is to be Christian and white in a racially unjust America, a growing awareness of racial tension manifests itself as “anxiety, guilt, cognitive dissonance, or even anger when race does come up” (Harvey, 10). I have witnessed all of these reactions.
There are a multitude of reasons that both parents and students are uncomfortable with such conversations, but parental anxiety often stems from fear and a desire to protect. We want to shield kids from heartbreak, but they will be heartbroken. It’s part of being human. We should want for them to be made whole, more fully human. As Harvey says, “white supremacy malforms my humanity, constrains my life, compromises my spirit” (119). Knowing that heartbreak is inevitable, what would we have break our children’s hearts? Shallow self-interest or a painful empathy that springs from the ability to recognize human dignity and injustice?
In Raising White Kids Harvey moves beyond theory to offer realistic advice about how to appropriately talk about and model racial engagement with children and young adults. It’s a tool that will greatly benefit those who read it and those they impact.
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