40 Ways to Raise a Nonracist Child

I was leary at first to read this book as racism is a hard subject to cover. However I am very impressed. Barbara Mathias and Mary Ann French did a superb job. These authors do not suggest you pretend race does not exist, in fact, they suggest you do not do that. The reader who said this book was 40 ways to program a child must have not actually read the book. The first section has advice for all parents and then the rest of the book is divided into age groups: Infancy through Preschool, The Early Elementary School years, The Upper Elementary School years, the Young Teen Years and the High School Years. Topics include: Insist on Respect, Select a Diverse Middle School, Face your Teen's Prejudice, Involve the Community and Don't Pretend Discrimination Doesn't exist. The Very second item is about why White parents should care about racism. In Ms. Mathias Introduction, she approaches the potential risk in approaching racism in a format such as '40 Ways to..." and she assures us that she does not mean to imply that racism is not a serious matter but that parents have little time to read long books about parenting. Ms. French also has an Introduction. These wonderful authors say that kids will notice differences and that's fine. While most of society thinks that going 'color-blind' will eliminate racism, these two (and I) do not agree. "Yes she does have darker skin than you. And you have lighter skin than her. It would be pretty boring if we were all the same wouldn't it?" is a premise of the book. Finally, Ms. Mathis and Ms. French do not lay blame on any one race or age group. It's not the whites fault or the blacks or hispanics fault and it's not the parents fault or the kids fault. It's the communities fault and the community needs to work together to stop racism.

How do we combat the racism of this country, especially that of white males? We do it by raising our children to challenge the assumptions of the powerful elite. As a feminist and white woman, I am proud to own a copy of this book. It is not, of course, a sophisticated discussion of racism such as bell hooks and other more transgressive/radical voices; yet it is a useful primer for those who have not given any thought to racism (i.e., the vast majority of people).

40 Ways really framed the issues for me and helped me sitdown and think about what I've been doing and what I cando to overcome this problem. What's most instructive is that so much racism is not overt, but a result of ignorance