Sasha Exeter was out for a walk with her toddler trying to enjoy the beautiful Toronto weather last month when the two were affronted by ugly racist vitriol. It wasn’t the two-year-old’s first encounter with racism, and despite her efforts to protect her, Exeter knows it won’t be the last.
Carl James, York University Faculty of Education Professor and Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora, said schools have a responsibility to help fill in these gaps by ensuring their curricula reflect the diversity of their student population.
“We can’t just leave it up to children to make sense of this unless we intervene,” James said. “Everyone has to get on board in helping to change that narrative.”
James said he’s heard from parents who worry that confronting racism could rob their children of their “innocence.” But he said for parents of racialized children, “innocence” isn’t an option, because ignorance could put their lives in danger.