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A few days ago I signed up for an online workshop called “Raising Race Conscious Children.”

After all, June is 16 months old and growing at a rapid pace and is quickly absorbing every single thing she sees, hears and does on a daily (make that hourly) basis.

There have been a lot of uncertainties in my life over the past several months. However I know one thing has always been certain for me, I am going to raise June to not only treat everyone with respect, love and kindness, but she will fight against racism. I was reading Untamed yesterday and something the author said really spoke out to me. She said that by the age of 10 we learn how to be “good girls” and “real boys.”

“Ten is when children begin to hide who they are in order to become what the world expects them to be… The way power justifies controlling a group is by conditioning the masses to believe that the group cannot be trusted.”

I always knew that the day would come where I’d start to talk to June about advocating, self-awareness and the difference of skin color. A lot of sleep training coaches advise new parents to begin “good sleep habits” the minute your newborn comes home. This offers the parents time to get used to having a schedule and a routine. It trains the parents into a way of thinking so that by the time the newborn is able to be sleep trained, the parent’s are already trained. That is how I’m looking at my anti-racism talks with June.

The conversations must start today.

I thought that by adding a few board books to our already existing collection it would be an easy way to continue our role as being good examples for June. Here are a few new favorites I came across.

Here are a few more great resources I’ve found over the past few days:

An age-by-age guide from Parents.com

A Guide To Diverse Toys

CNN & Sesame Street are hosting a Town Hall addressing racism this weekend!

Great books about racism for your kids – by New York Times

Also found a great article on how to talk to your kids about racism from The Tot.