Black Parenting : At what age do you discuss slavery?

c-note

Well-Known Member
REGISTERED MEMBER
Aug 11, 2006
103
9
SF, the city by the bay
My parents never told me about our history as slaves in this country. First time I heard about it was in 3rd grade. In fact, there were 3 other black kids in my class and NONE of us had heard anything about slavery before. I remember learning about this in a predominately white class, from a white teacher as a painful and embarrassing moment.

This will not be my daughter's experience. Her heritage lessons will begin at home, from me.

My question is: What is an appropriate age to begin discussing slavery?
 
Great question. My little one is 3 and at this rate I'm thinking before kindergarden. I think it may be best to base it on the child's level of maturity and understanding.
IMO, it's important to speak on Us b4 slavery though, since we have always been. That way, when you get to 4000 BC you can speak on caucasians and their beastly ways of "living." And then eventually work up to them being the ones who would eventually enslave us. And then take it from there.

I teach 5th grade and I hit them hard. I have to pull myself back to their being children...Gods, but children none-the-less.
And like you said, if I don't give them the circumference of the reality, someone else will give them the diameter and call it a day.
 
Wisely spoken Brother Sefirot.

I feel militant, so I wanted to yell "since the they are born!", but indeed, the minds of children are molded negatively all too easily.

If you plan to teach your children about history, then slavery should as big a part of it as what we were before it. Just remember to slip the fact that many of us are still enslaved in there.

Peace.

~Ikoro
 
I think you can tell a child just about anything, but it depends on "how" you tell them and it depends on what you say. I think you can explain all the basic details to even a 4 year old, but do so in a matter of fact way on the child's level, of course. Keep the anger out of your voice because the child will pick up on that and that, in itself, can be disturbing to a young child.

Even young children see bad, violent things happen on TV or know that bad things happen, so you could just tell them that some bad and violent people did some bad, violent things to us when we were in Africa and they stole some of our ancestors, brought them here, and made them do hard work from sunrise to sunset and so on.
 

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