Here are three suggestions for talking with kids about race and racism in the media.
“Mama, I sure do hope this Trump guy doesn’t win.”
hat’s what my son said to me as he hopped into the back of the car after school. I was caught off guard. I wasn’t even aware that my seven year old knew about real estate developer, reality-TV star, and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Like many parents, I assumed that I was protecting him by limiting his exposure to television.
asked, “Why don’t you want him to win, baby?”
“Well, if he wins, he wants to send people back to the countries where they are from,” said my son. “So what is he going to do with me? Send my arm and leg back to Africa, send my other arm and leg to Mexico, and the rest of me back to different countries in Europe?”
This is the message that many children are getting from Donald Trump’s campaign for President of the United States. In speeches and interviews, Trump has repeatedly painted whole categories of people as rapists, murderers, terrorists, and more. Worse, many of his followers act aggressively hostile toward people who don’t look like them: People of color who have dared come to his rallies have been targeted for physical and verbal violence, which Trump has explicitly condoned. As he said at one press conference about violence at his rallies: “The audience hit back, and that’s what we need a little bit more of.”