How Should I Talk with My Kids about Racism and the History of Slavery?

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I think it is critical to talk about these things but I would say the first step is to take action. If you want to be a role model for your children, why not invite a family of a different color over to your home for lunch or dinner, and sit around the table and just talk. Don’t talk about the big issues, history and all those things, just have a normal discussion with friends. I think that is a great first place to start.

From that starting point, building with your kids about these people are no different from us other than the color of their skin. They have the same desires, the same hopes, whether you are black or white or Asian or Latino, it doesn’t matter. That is one of the things I am looking at with my own boys—putting them into culturally rich diverse situations and talking to them about that.

Of course, we are talking about Charlottesville. Jean and I with our teenagers are talking about what is happening that context, why the angst. I think their initial reaction as children is to say, “Why do they want to pull down statues”. They don’t get the whole context of that.

And I think we can all have differences of opinion on these things, but where is the love of Christ? How do we treat each other with the respect that Jesus would desire from us? And I think the church has a lot to atone for historically, because we were rather silent during the Civil Rights marches, etc. and Scripture was twisted to use slavery in a way that was evil.

There was a survey I saw where 100% of high school students believed slavery was started and was only in the United States. That is a tragic misunderstanding of global history. Slavery was a modality that most conquering nations, tribes, etc. used to build their own economies whatever it might have been. Even the Native Americans in the United States had slaves within their tribes. It was a part of human history. Today we still have sex trafficking and other form of human slavery today. There is just something in the heart of humanity that leans in that direction, but we are making progress. And we have to continue to build on the progress that is made, even though we will have difficulty getting further ahead.