Educational Resources for Talking to Your Kids About Race and Anti-Racism

This is part two of our ongoing series about edTech industry shifts in at-home learning. To check out the whole series, click here.

Even though we’re still social distancing and guiding our kids through at-home learning, we also have an obligation to teach children about the world outside our apartments and homes. Increasingly, this means addressing the protests of police killings of Black people, including the murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police.

Our children likely have questions about the number of protests they see on the news or in their communities. Older teens with their own mobile devices or access to home computers may even seek out answers — and traumatic footage of police killings — on their own.

Before our children go back to school and begin interacting with their classmates, we can teach them the importance of understanding Black history and struggle in age-appropriate ways. Conversations about systemic inequality and injustice are never easy, but the right books, tools, and digital resources can make them easier.

We talked to Tiffany Le, an emerging school counselor, and Alyssa Catolico, an elementary school teacher, about the best online resources for talking to your kids about race. We encourage you to click, read, and buy books or resources from Black-owned bookstores whenever possible. (You can find lists here and here.)

Anti-Racism Resources

For young children

• PBS Kids, Daniel Tiger: Life’s Little Lessons
  • Videos, activities, and resources to help teach your preschooler about being “alike and different.” 
• Zootopia, Disney
  • Disney’s Zootopia, available on Disney+, explains prejudice in family-friendly, accessible ways. Use the film’s bullying scenes to discuss how it feels (or how it would feel) to be called out and made fun of for being different.
• Racism and Violence: Using Your Power as a Parent to Support Children Aged Two to Five
  • Learn how to navigate difficult questions on racism, including “Are police officers good or bad guys?” and “Why are people being mean and hurting others?”

For K-3

• Healthline Parenthood’s “Anti-Racism Resources for Parents and Kids”
  • This article includes lists of books, social media accounts to follow, podcasts, digital resources, films, tv shows, and videos to share with your kids.
• CNN and Sesame’s Street’s town hall on racism 
  • CNN recently partnered with Sesame Street to explore what the nation is going through and explain how kids can fight racism. The special also addresses who to call for help in times of police brutality.
• How to Teach Kids to talk about Taboo Subjects
  • In this TED Talk from 4th-grade teacher Liz Kleinrock, the educator shares how she teaches kids to discuss difficult subjects without fear.
• Talking about Race
  • Resources for educators and parents from the Smithsonian Museum.
• Anti-Racism Books for Counselors & Educators Supporting Black Children
  • A curated list of books about anti-racism created by Tiffany Le, an emerging school counselor.
• Talking to Kids about Black Lives Matter
  • A GoogleDoc resource prepared by a school counselor. 
• Black Lives Matter Instructional Library
  • A library of children’s books about activism, advocacy, empowerment, and Black history. All books link to read-aloud videos. Spanish translations of select books and additional resources are also available.

For Grades 4+

• Bored Teacher’s “50 Books About Race for Kids & Young Adults to Read Right Now”
  • From picture books to middle grade readers to YA classics, these books are digestible and literary explorations of race and police brutality. 
• A Unit to Teach Kids About Microaggressions
  • This lesson plan will challenge your kids to identify microaggressions and stereotypes about Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (or, BIPOC), regardless of how harmless these comments may seem on the surface.
• Civil Rights, explained by BrainPOP
  • This five-minute video about the Civil Rights Movement is appropriate for middle school-aged students and higher.

For educators 

• Anti-Racism Resources for all ages 
  • Curated by Dr. Nicole A. Cooke, this project includes videos, book recommendations, and tips for starting conversations that spark social change
    

In addition to sharing age-appropriate resources with your kids, consider tackling other action items and activities, like:

• Asking your child to choose an organization to donate to and making a donation together.
• Scheduling Black history story time. Remember that Black history extends far beyond stand-alone lessons about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks!
  • After selecting the books that you would like your child to read about anti-racism, give them the opportunity to choose which one they would like to read or listen to first.
• Initiating discussions with your child and asking them if they’ve seen or experienced moments of racism in their schools, friends, loved ones, or within themselves. Encourage them to share any moments when they believed they might have been racist too. Part of the process of becoming an ally is unlearning the unconscious biases we grew up with. Challenge your kids to set goals and expectations to help combat these thoughts. Speaking about racism should not be limited to Black communities.

Thanks for taking the time to use these digital resources to have difficult, necessary, and educational conversations with your children. Racist abuse, police brutality, and violence against Black people can be prevented through better education, understanding, and reflection. Let’s do the work together. Change begins at home.

Written by Cassandra Balbas

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Cassandra Balbas is a UX and graphic designer with a passion for designing tools that help educators and students reach their goals. After graduating from the University of California Irvine with degrees in Informatics and Art, she returned to UCI to manage and mentor the design teams in the Student Government Student Media department. She worked closely with students to produce inclusive visual design, make student resources more accessible, improve mental and physical health, and foster a well-rounded university experience. In addition to working with college students, Cassandra has worked in product design, nonprofit design, and marketing. When she isn’t designing, you can find Cassandra roaming bookstores or browsing through photos of pugs.