“It’s not People of Color's job to 'fix' racism. It's People of Color's job to heal from racism.’ And it's all of our job to: expose racism, name it, acknowledge it, and ‘explicitly encourage anti-racist values’" (from 2019 Wee the People ABCs of Racism Parent/Educator Workshop).  

Watch this Kidlit Rally for Black Lives event with children tonight and stay for the parent/educator/librarian talk afterward. Read Kekla Magoon’s article “Our Modern Minstrelsy” and read her 2019 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winning novel The Season of Styx Malone with kids (or just hand it to them) -- a perfect summer read. Christopher Myers wrote about “Young Dreamers”; read his article ("if people can see us as young dreamers, boys with hopes and doubts and playfulness, instead of potential threats or icons of societal ills, perhaps they will feel less inclined to kill us"), and seek out titles from his new publishing imprint, Make Me a World, including Pet by Akwaeke Emezi. Jacqueline Woodson wrote about “Who Can Tell My Story.” Zetta Elliott wrote about “Decolonizing the Imagination.” They’ve all done the hard work of spelling things out for everyone already, so now just let the children know — and take action. To repeat: “Expose racism, name it, acknowledge it, and ‘explicitly encourage anti-racist values.”