I can’t remember what particular conversation triggered it, but I realized a couple of years ago that I needed to get specific with my young children. I needed to dispel their stark and static notions of “law and order” and to tell them their civil rights movement heroes were lawbreakers. In addition to making racial justice an explicit family value in our home, I had a responsibility to actively challenge racism — in this case, by countering ideas like “criminals are bad because they break the law” and “police are good because they stop bad guys.”
I can’t remember what particular conversation triggered it, but I realized a couple of years ago that I needed to get specific with my young children. I needed to dispel their stark and static notions of “law and order” and to tell them their civil rights movement heroes were lawbreakers. In addition to making racial justice an explicit family value in our home, I had a responsibility to actively challenge racism — in this case, by countering ideas like “criminals are bad because they break the law” and “police are good because they stop bad guys.”
