by Marsha Rakestraw Today is Columbus Day in the U.S., and this year, as in generations before, elementary schools all across the country will teach another group of children that, “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and discovered America. It is a fact that Columbus sailed to North America in 1492 and encountered Native…
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by Marsha Rakestraw According to the latest figures from the National Center for Education Statistics, “black, Latino, Asian, and Native American students will together make up a narrow majority of the nation’s public school students,” yet the number of children’s books that feature characters of color are shamefully sparse. Studies show that having multicultural literature…
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by Marsha Rakestraw Studies show that children can learn racially-biased behaviors as young as three and learn to categorize people by race (non-verbally) at as young as six months. Yet we’re often reluctant to talk about race, or we pretend that being “color blind” is the least harmful choice. It’s vital that we as parents…
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Find suggested books, articles, videos, lesson plans and more related to issues of race, racism, discrimination, and prejudice to help you teach and/or learn more about these global ethical issues.
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by Marsha Rakestraw Recently I read two books, each featuring a female protagonist. One was by a black woman from Barbados, the book filled with characters of color living “normal” lives. The other by a white man who wrote about the tragic (and eventually redeemed) life of a young impoverished girl in Mozambique. Two different…
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by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards NAEYC, 2010 184 pgs How we set the tone about anti-bias in our classrooms and learning centers can influence the entire year — and possibly the whole of children’s lives. Children learn at an early age about differences in race, gender, ability, economic situation, sexual orientation, culture, and more,…
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by Marsha Rakestraw “…the single greatest advantage of white privilege is that a white person may be completely unaware of its existence.” ~ Michael Spangenberger, educator Many of us can go into a store and browse without worry that we’ll be monitored or accosted. We see people who look like us in the media. We…
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by Marsha Rakestraw We enjoy our cars, our homes, our stuff, and the wastes and the toxic chemicals and pollutants used to create — or which are a result of — our shiny stuff go “away” somewhere that we don’t really have to think about. But there is no “away.” The waste processing plants, the…
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