by Charlie Brooks posted in Parenting

I live in a small town in New England. Beautiful fall foliage, cold winters, friendly neighbors...the type of place you find on greeting cards. Well, except that most greeting cards don't mention the occasional racism and Nazi iconography.
That unfortunate graffiti rests on the sidewalk near my kids' bus stop. The swastika served as a reminder that there are stupid jerks everywhere. It also serves as a reminder that I need to talk to my kids about race in America.
I?d like to live in a world where I don?t have to talk about racism and inequity, but America hasn?t made much progress in that area during my lifetime. In some ways, we?ve developed even more blind spots. The victories of the Civil Rights Movement have convinced some people that racism is vanquished. That leads to the big question: when do you talk about this stuff to kids" I would argue that the time is right as soon as they can understand the situation. My kids are both in school, so they?re meeting people of different races and backgrounds. It seems like that time, for me, is now.
Talking about racism early on allows rational parents to properly set the narrative. The group that defines a story often sets perceptions. That?s one reason many people think NFL players kneeling during the national anthem is anti-military. Opposition has shifted the focus away from the message against police brutality it originally began.

I'm not trying to categorize people opposed to...