Children are fully complex human beings from the moment they enter the world. They share the world with adults. The same beautiful, devastating, racist world. Therefore, talking with young children about race [and therefore the violence that results from the creation of race and racism] is an act of love and an act of liberation. Race is one of the most powerful organizing factors in our lives and directly predicts access to safety, choice, wealth and resources. The United States of America has been created on the fabricated idea that all humans can be sorted into a few hierarchical categories based on how we look— with whiteness being deemed most valuable and Blackness most maligned. There is nothing obvious nor natural about the social system we all live in. Therefore, to leave young children alone to try to navigate something that was invented for the sole purpose of enabling white people to hoard land, power and money, doesn’t make sense to me. I am invested in trying to walk in the world next to young people, trying to figure out together what it means to build lives rooted in non-violence inside of a country conceived by abuse, theft, conquest and violation.
Adult Community
Education
I work alongside my friend and co-conspirator Grace Aldrich to lead community education work through our project The Full Story School. We collaborate with teachers, school administrators, parents and loved ones of young people to explore what white supremacy culture expects of us for it to function and how to use that understanding to chose something more rooted in love, justice and human needs.
Our work focuses on facilitating adults’ exploration around how to talk with young children about race, racial violence and white supremacy culture.
We offer work shops and multi-session classes.
Who Am I?
I am a white Jewish woman. I grew up in racial segregation on unceded Penacook land, now called Vermont.
I am a preschool teacher and have taught in both preschool and multi-age elementary classrooms. I understand my job to be deeply connected to large movements for the liberation of oppressed peoples.
I have an undergraduate degree in International Studies with a focus on race and gender. I have a Masters degree in Education, with a concentration on Racial Justice Early Education. I am the author of the illustrated book for adults entitled Power Means Who the Police Believe: Talking With Three Year Olds About Race and Racial Violence. I teach community workshops, work directly with early education programs and teach graduate level continuing education courses about talking with kids about racism and racial violence.
My Work
Power Means Who the Police Believe: Talking with Young Children about Race and Racial Violence is an illustrated book for adults generally, and parents and teachers specifically. It wanders between prose, infographics and graphic novel, asking the reader to both consider why we must love children enough to walk alongside them to understand the mechanisms, expectations and consequences of the creation of race in America; as well as to consider what the language could feel and sound like to describe red lining, police murder, melanin, whiteness, entitlement, equity, and so on, with young children. I talk about my work, and about the book, on the Healing Cultures Podcast with Eric Garza. You can listen to our conversation here.
