Children at Protests
© Adam Powell
When children are raised in a world centered around white supremacy, neoliberalism, and xenophobia, these concepts can easily become embedded in their psyche. This can affect a child that is white, causing them to inherit racist behaviors, or black, causing them to feel unworthy and have internalized anger of their own. In order to combat racism in the new generation of children, parents must confront and deconstruct the very society that their children are raised in.
© Adam Powell
Ibram X Kendi, author of the newly released Antiracist Baby, explores how to raise a child in a racist world, and explains many of the misconceptions regarding racism. In a recent Ted Talk, he explains, “People tend to define ‘racist’ as a fixed category, an identity, that this is essential to who a person is…. But that’s actually not how we should be defining ‘racist.’ ‘Racist’ is a descriptive term. It describes what a person is saying or doing at any given moment.” Antiracism is not about denial; you cannot make a racist claim and then deny the fact that you are racist. This is essential information for white parents. They should hold themselves and their children accountable for their behaviors and statements, and improve upon that dialogue.
© Adam Powell
In one picture, a young black child can be seen standing on a step ladder, a sign around their torso that reads “My Life Matters.” In a world that is constantly denying the childhood of black children, one that forces them to grow up way too soon, it is crucial that they able to assert the importance of their existence in the world. Another photo features a young white child writing on a sign to say “Black Lives Matter.” Teaching children to advocate for communities outside of their own, to foster empathy and understanding of something they are not, is a priority in an antiracist world.
© Adam Powell
Two kids clutch signs, one reading “I want to learn about my culture’s history in school,” with both an American and a Mexican flag pasted on. For Latinx children, it is rare to learn about their culture in school. The sign also challenges the skewed narrative of American history, racism being ‘over’ after the Civil Rights Movement, for example. The fourth photo shows a black girl drawing her own signs on cardboard, one of them stating “Black People Matter” with hand-drawn hearts and people surrounding the words.
© Adam Powell
These children are the future of antiracist America, an America that many of us can hardly envision after the centuries of systemic violence, racism, ableism, the thievery of indigeous land and the brutality towards its peoples, as well as homophobic and transphobic murders that disproportionately affect black womxn. However, to quote queer theorist José Muñoz, “Some will say that all we have are the pleasures of this moment, but we must never settle for that minimal transport; we must dream and enact new and better pleasures, other ways of being in the world, and ultimately new worlds.” To create a world we can hardly envision, we must dream of a new one, and that starts with emboldening the voices of black youth, and creating consistent dialogue with the white youth who shall stand beside them.
© Adam Powell
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