Hello, friends…
It’s been a while since my last blog, but today I felt like I had something important to talk about.
This morning I read an article: The gut-wrenching history of black babies and alligators by Dominique Foxworth. Here, Dominique goes over the history of white Americans using black and African babies as bait for alligators. He talks about hunters who took babies, too young to walk, and set them by the water’s edge. These hunters would wait for alligators to approach (sometimes they would wait until the alligator had latched onto a child), then they would kill the alligator. These people exchanged the life of human babies for alligator hides. In other cases, zoo owner’s and event coordinators would put black and African children inside of alligator exhibits and enclosures. Patrons would come to see the alligators chase the children for entertainment.
To make it worse (as if that were possible) the men and women who participated in these criminal events often captured them in drawings, newspaper reports, and more. They memorialized these moments, like they were doing something great.
This is yet another disgraceful, horrible note in the history of our country. So, why did I just hear about it today? Why are there people who laugh at the concept of racism? How are there human beings that can turn a blind eye to injustice and inequality?
Here’s the question that sparked this post: Should parents be teaching their children about the horrible and grotesque events that are left out of our history books?
Is there a right age to talk to your children about our history of racism, slavery, and hatred? Well, let me ask you: Was your first exposure to the real world on your eighteenth birthday? Probably not. You most likely interacted with the real world throughout your childhood.
I understand the idea behind protecting young children from the violence in the world. I understand wanting to protect your child’s innocence, but at the same time, I think there is an element of neglect in that philosophy.
There are a few possibilities:
You shelter your child from the horrible side of history, and they go through their lives remaining ignorant and apathetic towards people who have suffered through these experiences, and the pain that carries into the generations after. In this case, you essentially produce a non-contributing member of society. Your child can’t be part of society’s progress, because they don’t understand the people around them, or the nature of their society.
You shelter your child from the horrible side of history, and then release them into the world where they are shocked and disturbed by the nature of reality. They don’t know how to handle real world issues when they encounter them, because they didn’t know that they existed at all. In this case, you stunt your child’s growth. They are released into the world, thinking that it is one way, when really it’s another.
You teach your child about the horrible side of history, and you share more details with them as they grow older and more capable of processing them. So, you aren’t fully sheltering them, and you aren’t shocking them either. This could go either way. If you genuinely expose your child to history, showing them the truth of it, then they may very well become compassionate well-educated, contributing members of society. However, if you censor the history too much, and you do not show them the whole truth, you will have misinformed your child (like a parent who turns off Bambi before the mother deer dies, and tell their child that the story ends there, before the tragedy occurs).
Finally, you teach your child about the horrible side of history, and you hold nothing back. Assuming that your child is mature enough to understand what they are learning, they see the unfiltered events. They learn the actual facts of history. Which is what they would experience in real life. On the flip side, if you do not consider your child as an individual, and their state of maturity and growth, you may shock them (there are studies about the possibility of brutal and violent content giving young children PTSD symptoms). Either way, they learn the truth behind the history, but their ability to understand it, and develop personal values and thoughts from it could be hindered if you expose them to it in a cruel way.
From a Sociological perspective…
The home, your family, is the first level of socialization that a child receives. This could be something as simple as family traditions, but it also includes a child’s ability to understand the experiences and thoughts of people around them.
If you want to see real change in the world, yes, you should take action and live your life the way you think is right. However, a HUGE thing to consider: perhaps the most powerful tool for change, is the next generation. It’s your children and younger peers.
We must teach our children about the injustices in our history, so that they do not repeat themselves. We must teach them to treat people with respect and dignity. Your children are the future political leaders, doctors, scientists, the next generation of parents, and school teachers.
The truth is that racist and hateful philosophies have been passed down by generations of parents who are avidly talking to their children about their beliefs and their perspectives. Sheltering their children from the reality of other people’s experiences and value, is what people like them have been doing for so long.
We can break the mold. We can teach our children to be considerate, to search for the truth, and to have well-informed perspectives. That is how we can end the cycle of hatred that is so deeply engrained in our history.