The Somethings of Race and Justice and Bedtime Conversations

Last updated on: December 8, 2018 at 12:07 pm by Cara Meredith

The Somethings of Race and Justice and Bedtime Conversations 2018-12-08T12:07:04-07:00 Cara Meredith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

On Tuesday morning, I gathered with a group of local mamas, ours a tabletop conversation of talking to our kids about issues of race and justice. I read excerpts from my book and talked about how, as a white person, mine is a learned experience – and my entry point into the conversation primarily stems from doing my homework and understanding my privilege.

Pixabay / PublicDomainImages

But in the midst of listening and learning (and listening some more), there’s also a responsibility to just do something, whatever our “something” is.

Austin Channing Brown, author of I’m Still Here and one of my favorite thinkers around issues of race and justice, said it this way on the For the Love podcast: “I have no idea what you should do, but you should do something. You can do something and it’s your job to figure out what that something is and to let that something lead to more and more somethings.”

I don’t know about you, but I yearn to be present to those somethings …and most of the time, those somethings all start in conversation.

Take last night, for example: my older son and I lay on his bed, reading books before bedtime. Headlamp on his head, he shined the light toward the page, scanning the words and pictures for him and for me. We read a couple of Christmas books, and then settled into a book we’d just picked up from the library, Memphis, Martin and the Mountaintop about the sanitation strike of 1968.

It wasn’t the first time he and I had talked about different events from the Civil Rights Movement, nor was it the first time we’d talked about racial inequality. But it was the first time he asked when the hate would end, when he asked for a timeline so it would make sense in his mind.

“What do you think, Mama?” He asked me after we closed the book, our bodies nestled close to one another.

“What do I think about what, buddy?”

“What do you think about how long until everyone understands that this is just the skin we were born in. One year? Ten years? Thirty years?”

“Oh baby, I would love for it to be only one more year but it doesn’t look like the hate’s gonna end anytime soon.”

From there, our conversation dove into present issues of injustice, about how even though everyone has been created equally in the eyes of God, not everyone is treated equally by their fellow human beings. I marveled at the words we shared, how he got it and he understood – how passionate he already is, both seeking to understand the legacies of Dr. King and his granddaddy and Jesus, and also in wondering about how we can eradicate the hopelessness of hate.

I want what he has, I thought to myself. At six years old, he gets it. He sees it. He understands the problem of race and justice, the problem I long believed didn’t have anything to do with me because of the color of my skin (and because of the supposedly colorblind world I lived in).

Even if he’s still figuring out how to articulate the thoughts percolating around in his mind, he understands the problem at its core: that everyone, no matter the color of their skin, is worth of dignity – simply because they’ve been stamped with the image of the Divine.

And as someone who’s daily learning how to color outside the lines, this conversation of somethings gives me hope.

—

Hey! What somethings are you embracing today? If you’re a parent, how do you talk about issues of race and justice with your children?

*Post contains Amazon Affiliate links

Uncategorized

Previous Post

December 5, 2018

Where Art Thou? (A Guest Post by Catherine Hervey)

Next Post

December 12, 2018 Oh, that Star-a Wonder

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book reviews Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2026 June 2026 December 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 September 2023 June 2023 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 November 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz