Anti-Racist Pandemic Parenting

Parenting is especially challenging right now on many levels. Not only are we in the midst of a global pandemic, but we’re also trying to raise socially conscious kids during a time of significant racial and political unrest.

We were thrilled to welcome three expert panelists: Dr. Y. Joy Harris-Smith (communication and culture scholar and author of The ABCs of Diversity: Helping Kids (and Ourselves!) Embrace Our Differences), Dr. Travis Heath (psychologist and cultural democracy scholar), and Ms. Leslie Priscilla Arreola-Hillenbrand (parent coach and founder of Latinx Parenting) to share insight and guidance on rooting out racism in ourselves and in our communities while teaching our kids to do the same. 

Key Moments

(2:30) Why Dr. Zelechoski and Dr. Malloy wanted to have this specific conversation with our panelists.

(4:30) Introducing our panelists: Dr. Y. Joy Harris-Smith, Dr. Travis Heath, and Ms. Leslie Priscilla Arreola-Hillenbrand

(10:13) Why shouldn’t parents teach their kids to be “colorblind?”

(13:30) What do I do when my kids say something that is embarrassing or potentially offensive in public? 

(18:15) Being non-racist is not the same thing as being anti-racist. How can we model for our kids intentional, proactive anti-racism? How do we do that for kids of different ages?

(28:30) Why has pandemic parenting been so much harder for families of color?

(38:38) What do you want or need from white parents? How can we be better allies?

(48:58) At what age should we start teaching children about race?

(55:55) How do we transition from learning about other cultures and cultural competence to the real work of disarming whiteness? 

(59:15) If you could wave your magic wand and make every parent do one anti-racist thing, what would it be?

Reflection Questions

Webinars and resources are all well and good, but having a ton of information is only as helpful as you can do something with it. Take a few moments with yourself, your partner, or others in your circle of support to reflect on the following questions and process the insights and tips that stood out most to you.

  1. When it comes to talking to your child(ren) about race, what are your biggest fears/worries?

  2. What are some ways that you can be actively and intentionally anti-racist in your child's school, neighborhood, work place, place of worship, or other organization?

  3. Think about something your kids said or did in the past...how might you handle it differently now after hearing the advice of the expert panelists?

  4. Rather than just talking about anti-racism with your child(ren), what are some ways - big or small - that you can demonstrate your commitment to anti-racism to your child(ren) in your daily life?

  5. Discuss the term "ally." How do you feel about this term versus the one that Dr. Travis Heath used: "white cultural activist"? You can find this discussion at 38:38 in the webinar recording.

  6. Dr. Y. Joy Harris-Smith recommended taking stock of your privilege(s) and thinking about how you can be a bridge for good. What are some of the privileges that you have and how can you use them for anti-racist action? You can find this discussion at 1:00:39 in the webinar recording.

Additional Related Resources

From Our Panelists: 

Other Resources We’ve Found Helpful: 


Key Moments From This Webinar

 

How To Dismantle Racism

How to be an Effective Activist

The Uncomfortable Conversation About Race

Don’t Teach Your Child to be Colorblind About Race

Should parents talk to their children about anti-racism?

How to Serve as a Good Example for Your Children

 

Meet Our Guest Experts

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Y. Joy Harris-Smith, Ph.D.

Dr. Harris-Smith is a scholar in the field of Communication & Culture. She is currently a senior lecturer in Speech Communication at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ. In addition, to demonstrating excellence in her teaching and presenting Dr. Harris-Smith is coauthor of The ABCs of Diversity: Helping Kids (and Ourselves!) Embrace Our Differences published by Chalice Press (June 2020). Dr. Harris-Smith spent the majority of her growing up in Queens, New York attending New York City Public Schools. She graduated from Hobart & William Smith Colleges earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. Several years later she earned a spot in the New York City Teaching Fellows program and attended St. John's University earning a Master of Science degree in Education. Feeling compelled to teach beyond the junior high/high school classroom Dr. Harris-Smith attended Princeton Theological Seminary in 2007. Desiring to go as far as she could educationally, Dr. Harris-Smith earned her Ph.D. in Communication & Culture from Howard University in 2013. Her desire is to make the complicated plain in the classroom and beyond. In conjunction with bringing a unique style to the academic classroom, Dr. Harris-Smith is wife to Leon and mother to Asa and Eden. Her hope is to help make the world a better place now and for the future.

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Travis Heath, Ph.D.

Travis is a licensed psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He is currently on a one-year leave and serving as a Visiting Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Denver where he is directing the Trauma, Disaster, and Recovery Clinic as well as serving as the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Graduate School of Professional Psychology. Past work he’s been involved with looked at shifting from a multicultural approach to counseling to one of cultural democracy that invited people to heal in mediums that are culturally near. His most recent work involves incorporating the work of Black abolitionist scholars into psychotherapy, community healing, and uprising. His writing has focused on the use of rap music in narrative therapy, working with persons entangled in the criminal injustice system in ways that maintain their dignity, narrative practice stories as pedagogy, a co-created questioning practice called reunion questions, and community healing strategies. He is currently co-authoring the first book on Contemporary Narrative Therapy with David Epston and Tom Carlson. He has been fortunate enough to run workshops and speak about his work in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Norway, United Kingdom, and United States.

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Leslie Priscilla Arreola-Hillenbrand

Leslie Priscilla Arreola-Hillenbrand is a first generation non-Black Xicana with Rarámuri lineage. She is a mother to three biracial children and a certified Parent Coach with over 13 years of experience. Leslie shares her medicine by offering coaching, workshops, support and advocacy for Latinx/Chicanx families locally, nationally and internationally via Latinx Parenting. Leslie’s vision is of a movement rooted in children's rights, social and racial justice, the individual and collective practice of nonviolence and reparenting, intergenerational and ancestral healing, cultural sustenance, and the active decolonization of oppressive practices in our families towards liberation.


Pandemic Parenting is a collaboration between two psychologists, scholars, and moms committed to sharing their expertise and research in ways that are immediately accessible and useful to families. Learn more about Dr. Amanda Zelechoski and Dr. Lindsay Malloy.

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