Oh, it’s wondrous to talk to young people. They give so much back and they are so loving and so hopeful. But I met one young man who said, “You know, it’s not just because of me that I feel this prejudice and discrimination. You mean, this has been going on for a while?” And I was like, “Yes.” And to be able to say, “No, it’s not you. It’s part of an historical pattern.”
I think we forget that in not talking about racism, there are so many stories or misinformation that children receive. And so, if I can stop one child from thinking that something is wrong with them and to see the pattern of the story of, you know, racism and bias, then that is a very, very good thing.
I even met an adult who is 26 who had never heard of Emmett Till and it was like, “Oh, my gosh, you’re a parent now. You need to know this in order to share it with your child.” So, I like that impact of children all of a sudden feeling, “Hey, this is not a “no” to me, but this is a “yes” to me. And the problem lies in our country, in our system, it lies elsewhere, not in who I am as a person of color.” I think that’s cool. Everyone should know that.
I hope everyone gets a chance to read it. I guess authors say that. But if it stopped one family’s generation, their lifeline, from truly eradicating racial bias or bias in general towards anything — religion, gender, whatever — think about the ripple effect of that in making the world an even better place. So, I know I’ve tried to do that with my children. They’re trying to do that with their children. And so on and so forth. So, just give me a few bloodlines, a few histories of people who as they move through this world will bring about change by their own example of treating people respectfully.
Adults are really interesting because I think adults feel like what I felt. They cry because adults are much more aware of, “Oh, it hasn’t gotten better.” We have the memories of Martin Luther King being murdered. We have the memories of civil rights and riots and other people that we can name and maybe even visualize who have been murdered.
So, very often adults will say, “I cried, I cried. I cried.” But the children are “Tell me more.” And they have a kind of objectivity outside of history, but given history, they can somehow then move forward and make a difference. That they don’t have to sort of like cauterize this pain, that they can instead say, “That’s not right. I’m going to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.”
And I think that’s a wonderful space because then you also have the child healing the parent and the parent looking at their child and saying, “You know, yeah. My girl’s going to change the world. She’s going to do it differently.” I think that’s nice.