something I will have to be aware of to effectively parent my Ethiopian children as a white mother/woman. Internalized racism is the taking on of the values and perspectives of the dominant culture–including things that are detrimental to a person’s own image or sense of self. For those of us raising girls–watch this…
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAOZhuRb_Q8%5Dclick here to watch it on youtube.
I wish more White parents of Black children would think about these issues like you have. It seems to me that most people believe that their love and colorblindness will shield their children from racism or self-hatred. The messages of inferiority that the Black children get come mostly from outside the home, whether it’s intentional or not. Pretending that it doesn’t exist or if you don’t talk about it won’t affect you, is doing a big disservice to children.
Please keep educating yourself about issues like these and working on ways to make sure your children don’t end up feeling like the kids in this video. You can only prevent it by actively working against it. I commend you.
Finally, Minnow is such a handsome little boy! I wish you the best in adding a little girl to your family.
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@Sheryl: The messages of inferiority that the Black
children get come mostly from outside the home, whether it’s
intentional or not.
It also comes from referring to yourselves as white versus caucasian and them as black versus African. It’s extremely mentally damaging and will have long term affects similar to ptsd.
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