Will They Be Scared?

White children are already taught by white supremacy to be scared of people of color, who are the global racial majority. More subtly, white children are also taught to fear losing whiteness as a way to feel, at least in one way, better than people with darker skin. These fears are powerful ways white people are controlled. Young children learning about the lies behind those emotions and thought patterns may actually lessen the ways they are controlled by fear and alleviate anxiety and unnecessary vigilance.

Children of color may experience fear from either observing or feeling the effects of a hostile world built to punish and control them. Not talking about the violent and inappropriate conditions under which we live does not eliminate or lessen the trauma experienced because of those circumstances. Often, it does the opposite.