Dear Child, You Are Racist.

An open letter to my future child(ren)

Photo by Max Goncharov on Unsplash

Dear Child,

I write you this letter many years before your birth. Though I have no idea really if you’ll ever be born. I have yet to know who your mother is or where life will lead, but I wanted to write to you either way.

What I am about to tell you may be difficult to hear. In fact, you might not want to know it or even understand it. It may be that you need to return to this letter again and again, to really get what I’m talking about. And that’s ok.

Here we go . . .

My sweet, you are a racist.

The hard thing about telling you this is that you may think that you are a bad person for being a racist. You have by now probably learned that being racist is bad, that you shouldn’t comment on people’s race, or make racist jokes, or think of yourself as better than others.

I tell you this not to shame you or make you feel bad. I see in you such natural and incredible love for others, such sweet caring, such kindness, and such curiosity.

So know that I don’t love you any less, or think worse of you for being a racist.

I too, after all, am a racist, as are probably most of the people we know. My father was a racist and his father before him…