Jun 5 • Free Series
HARD CONVERSATIONS: Raising Racially Aware Children PART 2
Before I say anything else I want to say something from my heart.
I pray everyone reads this with the spirit it was written in.
This is always a touchy conversation. But as touchy as it is for us our children are navigating it every single day. In classrooms. On playgrounds. In rooms where they are the only one who looks like them.
And they are navigating it without us ..unless we decide to show up.
If anyone disagrees with anything I say tonight I welcome that conversation. In love. In Christ. Because we can disagree and still agree on Jesus. That is the foundation everything else stands on.
Now let's go.
Yes. Racism is real.
It is not a political opinion. It is not up for debate. It is a documented part of human history and a present reality in our world.
Black people have not always been dealt a fair hand. Slavery. Lynching. Systemic barriers that didn't disappear because laws changed. That history is real and our children ALL of our children deserve to know it.
Ruby Bridges. Harriet Tubman. Martin Luther King Jr.
These are not just Black history. These are American history. Human history. And every child regardless of skin color should know these names and what they walked through because empathy is built on understanding and you cannot understand what you were never taught.
But here is where I want to take us tonight.
This conversation is not about who had it worse.
It is not a competition of pain.
Because the truth is a Black person may call a white person trailer trash. A white person may say the N word to a Black person. Hatred does not belong to one race. Hurt people hurt people across every color line.
The goal tonight is not to assign blame.
The goal is to teach our children how to SEE.
What we need our children to understand is...............
-The person standing in front of them is not responsible for the past they didn't live.
-That white child did not own slaves.
-That Black child did not burn anything down.
-That person across the table from them whatever their color is carrying a story your child has never heard.
And a child of God should want to know that story.
Not to feel guilty. Not to feel superior. But to feel connected.
Here is what racism does that we have to undo:
It makes people feel like the room they walked into was not built for them.
A Black child walks into a room full of white people and feels unqualified before they say a word.
A white child walks into a room full of Black people and feels uncomfortable before anyone looks at them.
Both of those feelings are real. Both of those feelings need to be addressed. And both of those children need the same answer
You are a child of God. You belong in every room He places you in. Your worth is not determined by who is around you.
What history teaches us that we must pass down........
Black people carry roots that go deeper than most people know. A history of survival, creativity, faith, and resilience that built things under conditions that would have broken most.
White people carry stories too of poverty, of shame, of things that happened to them that Black people may never know about.
Neither story cancels the other.
But here is what I know......
Your child will never understand the person across the table from them unless you teach them to ask.
Not assume. Not judge. Not categorize.
Ask. Listen. Learn.
This is the character of Christ.
What God says about all of this............
-He does not look at the outside. He looks at the heart. — 1 Samuel 16:7
-What comes out of our mouths, not what is said about us is what defiles us. — Matthew 15:11
-There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. -Galatians 3:28
God is not colorblind. He made every color on purpose. Every culture as a reflection of His creativity. And He calls us to honor that not ignore it.
So what do we tell our children?
Yes racism exists. People will judge you. People may try to make you feel less than.
But you know who you are.
You are not your skin color alone. You are not someone's stereotype. You are not the sum of what history did to people who look like you.
You are a child of the Most High God.
And that means when you walk into a room any room you walk in with something nobody can take from you.
You walk in with identity. With purpose. With the responsibility to see people the way God sees them.
Not better than. Not less than. Just human. Loved. Made in His image.
That is what we are raising.
Not children who are colorblind because colorblind means you ignore someone's story.
But children who are Kingdom minded
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HARD CONVERSATIONS: Raising Racially Aware Children PART 2
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