How to teach your kids to deal with prejudice

Frederick Goodall, Blogger of "Mocha Dad", shares advice for parents on how to teach their kids the best way of dealing with prejudice they may face
Parenting Tips | How To Teach Your Kids To Deal With Prejudice
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How to teach your kids to deal with prejudice

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As parents, we have to teach our children how to deal with prejudice or racism or sexism or anything, any "isms" that are out there. And it's not always easy to do that. But a couple of things that I try and do with my kids, is first of all, build up their self-esteem. Let them know that you are a valuable person and no one has the right to downgrade you or make you feel bad about yourself because you are worthy in everything that you do. Once you have that foundation of self-confidence, it becomes a little bit easier for them to say things or protect themselves or fight back when somebody says something that's negative about them that weren't true. People will say things and people have all kinds of opinions about you. As an African-American dad and as African-American children, people will say things about the race in particular. My daughter, in fact had that a situation with one of her very close friends. And I don't think her friend was being malicious but I think that she just didn't know how to talk about race or how to deal with these things with my daughter. And the things she was saying were actually offensive to my daughter and my daughter didn't like them. So because of some conversations we've had about some things people will say, she picked up with few of these things like "yeah, this conversation isn't going in the right way." She told me about it. She told me all about it and we had some conversations. We tried to tell her, "Listen, if you're not comfortable with this conversation and she is actually your friend, you need to tell her about it. You need to tell her specifically what she's saying that's offending you and you need to have that conversation as quickly as possible. So the very next day, she went to her friend and told her about the things that her friend was saying, let her know why she was upset about these things, and since that moment, her friend realized "hey, I didn't realize what I was doing was offensive to you. Thank you for telling me." We have to have those open conversations. We have to teach our children to have those open conversations and let people know "hey, I don't like the things you're saying. These things are offensive. This is why I like to ask you to stop saying those things." Some people will comply, some people will not because of ingrained things. We have to be open and honest and let people know that we won't be trampled on.

Frederick Goodall, Blogger of "Mocha Dad", shares advice for parents on how to teach their kids the best way of dealing with prejudice they may face

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Frederick J. Goodall

Blogger, "Mocha Dad"

Frederick J. Goodall is a writer, a speaker, and a father. In 2008, he started the popular fatherhood blog, "Mocha Dad" to chronicle his life as a dad and to counter the negative stereotypes regarding black fatherhood. He wanted to give readers a first-hand account of a black father who is intimately involved in his children’s lives. Now he uses the blog to not only capture his experiences, but also to help motivate other men to be more actively engaged and involved with their children, families, and communities.

Through his writing, Goodall attempts to address serious cultural and social issues. His articles and essays have been published in numerous magazines, newspapers, and journals such as The Houston Chronicle, Essence, and Folio Weekly. His work has also appeared in the anthologies: Paper Thin/Soul Deep and The African-American Book of Values. In addition, Goodall is a regular contributor to the websites Mamiverse, Goldfishsmiles, Your Teen Mag, and Together Counts. Goodall also travels the country speaking on the topics of fatherhood, men’s issues, social media, and blogging.

Goodall was born in Houston, Texas and graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C. He currently lives in Houston with his wife and three kids.

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