so you want to talk about race book cover

A book of essays, like this one, certainly CAN be read cover to cover, but let’s be realistic about how this book is going to get into the hands of kids and what it’s going to do once it’s there. I flip through this book and think about how a kid would read through it. What they have to say, we all need to hear. Take comfort then in relying upon the experts. We don’t all have the words to say what needs to be said to our children. And if these have a common thread or through line, it comes from knowing that the words in this book, the advice it gives, aren’t just for the children of the creators. There are talks about why the offhand comment from that stranger you met the other day is NOT okay. Others prepare their offspring for danger, physically and emotionally. Some are discussions of why the children must never despair, living in America today. And so, with the help of those thirty people, the Hudsons have compiled together a book that looks at different kinds of talks people have with their kids. “There are many reasons why parents and caregivers share 'The Talk’ with children,” write editors Wade and Cheryl Willis Hudson in the Foreword. It’s a two-way street and everybody’s driving. In truth? This also is the book that will help KIDS talk to their parents.

Pitch perfect in tone and content, this is supposedly the book that will help all parents talk to their kids. And to be perfectly frank, I’ve seen few books that tap into that desire to know more than The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth. But what about the children of those people? If you want to talk to your children seriously about race in this country, where do you begin? If they’re on the younger side of things you might hand them Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham, but older kids need more sophisticated content. Books like How to Be an Antiracist and So You Want to Talk About Race and Caste continue to fly off the shelves. When George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were murdered and the country erupted into nationwide protests, lots of people started buying books that would help them understand the current cultural moment. It’s longstanding, systematic, and baked into the foundation of our society. But racism, in all its myriad forms, isn’t trendy. When you want to use the current cultural moment as a springboard, it can be difficult to do so when looking at the current crop of books for kids out there.

The titles that we are seeing on our bookstore shelves right now have usually been in the works for years and years. But the business of publishing books for children is a slow process.

And history, like it or not, isn’t boring.

What are we teaching our children? Or, put another way, what are we allowing other people to teach our children? If you live in the year 2020 then you are living through history.

So you want to talk about race book cover