Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter

My kids see the boarded up businesses near our home.  They hear the helicopter hovering over us every evening well into the night for the last week.  They are curious, scared, and confused.

We tell them what the protests are for. We teach them the difference between protests and riots.  We tell them the stories of how George Floyd, Ahmed Aubrey, and Breonna Taylor died and how Amy Cooper's actions are racist.  We introduce systemic racism to them and hope more questions come at future dinner conversations.  We connect the dots for them on the history we do know.  We tell them that racism and COVID-19 are two deadly pandemics at this moment.  We validate their fear that seeing so many people together protesting could make more people sick with COVID. We tell them to look at the beauty of seeing so many people around the world protesting for change and how important it truly is. 

Being kind and treating others like you want to be treated isn't enough, even for our elementary school aged kids.  Speaking up against acts of racism and unjustness is necessary at their age too.  It's up to Nate and me to maybe not shelter them anymore from the happenings of the world so we can be even more clear with our values and set the example. 

Black Lives Matter