Raising Black Kids in a Racist Culture

As a white mama with a white daughter, parts of my mothering journey are vastly different than my sisters of color. We live in a racist society (it’s the water we’re all swimming in).

In today’s episode and the next episode of We Thrive TV we’re going to be exploring this together. And, today we’re starting with centering the experience of black mamas, and folks raising black kids.

For generations, mamas of color have had to ask the daily mothering question (as today’s guest so eloquently says): “what is the best way to keep fear at bay and raise a child so she lives with dignity and joy?”

Today’s guest, Dani McClain, is a longtime reporter on race, reproductive health, and politics, and the author of a warm, wise and urgent guide to parenting in uncertain times. We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood was written as Dani, a first-time mother, set out to understand how to raise her daughter in what she, as a black woman, knows to be an unjust — even hostile — society.

Black, brown, white, indigenous, mixed or whatever racial identity you hold or pass as in our racist culture, I know you are going to be made more wise, more loving, and more resilient by hearing Dani’s brilliance.

And a specific note to white mamas in our community:so often racism is framed as an issue for people of color to address, and we white or white passing folks turn away, or intellectualize, or throw our hands up in the air. This is actually ourproblem (white folks perpetuate racism because we’re all raised in a racist society) and I want to invite you to pull up a chair with me, be a student side-by-side with me, and listen.

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