Table Talk: Family Conversations about Current EventsThe CROWN Act is a law that forbids discrimination based on hair texture and hair styles. CROWN stands for: “Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair.” Hair discrimination impacts Black people, especially Black women and girls in schools and workplaces who wear hair styles such as locs, braids, twists, Bantu knots, afros and natural hair. They are punished by discriminatory workplace and school dress codes and…
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Table Talk: Family Conversations about Current EventsWhat does it mean to challenge or ban books? Why are books banned or challenged? What impact does banning books have on young people, schools, libraries and society?
“Challenging” a book means that a person, group or institution is trying to remove or restrict access to a book because they object to the book’s content, ideas, or themes. These challenges can be initiated by …
Table Talk: Family Conversations about Current EventsPeople are talking about critical race theory a lot these days. There are discussions taking place in school board meetings across the country, sometimes getting quite heated and argumentative. Laws and other measures that ban “critical race theory” and “divisive concepts” are moving through state legislatures. Children's books, especially those that focus on race and racism, are being banned in states that have…
Table Talk: Family Conversations about Current EventsJuneteenth, also known as “Juneteenth Independence Day,” “Emancipation Day,” "Jubilee Day," or “Freedom Day,” is an annual holiday to mark the end of slavery. The holiday’s name is a blending of the words “June” and "nineteenth." Juneteenth commemorates the day in history that Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and informed the…
National Hispanic Heritage Month honors the achievements, contributions, culture, and history of Hispanic and Latin American people. The month-long celebration begins on September 15 commemorating the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively.
The 2023 theme for National Hispanic Heritage…
Table Talk: Family Conversations about Current EventsLonnie Chavis is an actor who stars in the television series, This Is Us; he plays the 13-year-old Randall Pearson. He started acting at a very young age and has been on numerous television shows and in movies, including “The Boy Behind the Door,” which was released in 2020.
In June 2020, Lonnie Chavis wrote an essay called, “America Needs to Change,” which was published in People magazine. In the essay, he shares…
Table Talk: Family Conversations about Current Events For Educators | For Parents, Families, and Caregivers Topic Summary
In April 2019, Kyle Korver, a U.S. professional basketball player who plays with the Utah Jazz, wrote an essay about racism and white privilege that received a lot of acclaim and attention. In the essay, Korver, who is white, reflects on several biased incidents involving his African-American teammates and his reaction to those incidents. He then reflects on his own…
November is Native American Heritage Month, which was first declared by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. The month provides an opportunity to commemorate the rich and diverse cultures, traditions and histories and acknowledge the important contributions of Native American/Indigenous people. It is also an important time to educate the general public, as well as young people in schools, about the bias, discrimination and unique challenges faced by Native American/Indigenous people…
Over the past couple of years, we have seen an alarming increase in incidents of violent bias, including hate crimes, harassment, identity-based bullying, vandalism and more. At the same time, we have also seen ordinary citizens take action to support and protect targets and victims—from individual bystanders acting as allies to groups of people fighting for fairness and justice in their communities.
A&E’s ‘Divided States’ documentary series explores the ways in…
Table Talk: Family Conversations about Current Events For Parents, Families, and Caregivers Topic Summary
In recent years, there has been a lot of attention paid to the diversity of children’s books, shining a light on the lack of diversity and amplifying the need for more children’s and young adult literature that reflects our multicultural society. In 2014, an organization named We Need Diverse Books formed, following a regularly trending hashtag with the same name (…
For Educators | For Students Race and racism are important topics to bring into your classroom. Because race is part of our public conversation and integrated into so many aspects of our world, young people want to and should be part of that conversation, no matter their race. White students in predominantly white classrooms should be discussing race for those reasons and because they are members of a multicultural society and world. Sometimes teachers feel reluctant to raise the topic of race…
Table Talk: Family Conversations about Current Events For Parents, Families, and Caregivers | 12 and upTopic Summary
In August 2017, a group of white supremacist groups convened in Charlottesville, VA for ‘Unite the Right,’ one of the largest and most violent gatherings in the U.S. in decades. It brought together white supremacist groups including the alt right, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. The gathering’s stated goal was to save the statue of Confederate General…
In August 2017, ‘Unite the Right’ convened one of the largest and most violent gatherings in decades in the U.S. that brought together white supremacist groups including the alt-right, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. The gathering’s stated goal was to save the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, because like other places in the South, there are still monuments celebrating leaders of the Confederacy. Hundreds gathered on Friday evening and Saturday to broadcast their…
Table Talk: Family Conversations about Current Events For Educators | For Parents, Families, and Caregivers | 13 and upTopic Summary
More than 150 years after the Civil War, there is a new drive to remove Confederate monuments. In April and May 2017, the New Orleans City Council voted to remove four Confederate monuments from their city. This decision came on the heels of other cities such as Austin, TX and Louisville, KY, who also voted to remove their statues. New Orleans Mayor Mitch…
Table Talk: Family Conversations About Current Events For Educators | For Parents, Families, and Caregivers | 12 and upTopic Summary
Two studies published by the American Psychological Association (APA) about perceptions and race led to these headlines: “We Think Black Men are Bigger than White Men (Even When they're Not)” and “Black Boys Are Perceived as Older and Less Innocent than Their White Peers.”
The 2014 study, “Black Boys Viewed As Older, Less…
Early Childhood Question Corner For Educators | For Parents, Families, and Caregivers About 10 years ago, Sesame Street developed a “race relations” curriculum. Formative research was conducted to determine preschoolers’ understanding of “race relations.” Researchers asked children if they wanted to be friends with children from difference races and how their mothers would feel about these friendships. Overall, preschoolers wanted to be friends with children of…
The Mother of Civil Rights
Rosa Parks was an important social activist, a woman hailed by the U.S. Congress as the Mother of the Modern Day Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks is best known for taking a stand against racial segregation by refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus on December 1, 1955. While most people know of her courageous leadership during the year-long Montgomery bus boycott, many people aren’t aware that Mrs. Parks was a community leader and activist for…
Table Talk: Family Conversations About Current Events For Parents, Families, and Caregivers | 10 and upTopic Summary
Over the past several years, the lack of diversity in the Academy Awards has prompted a public and important conversation about implicit bias and the role it plays in the movie industry—from what films get made and by whom to who plays the starring roles and the extent to which people of color and women receive awards for their roles.
When the 2016 Academy Award…
Collection of educational resources for teaching about Black History Month
Table Talk: Family Conversations About Current Events For Parents, Families, and Caregivers | 10 and upUpdated July 2020
The decades-old controversy over the Washington Redskins name is in the news again. In early July 2020, FedEx, Nike and other major sponsors of the N.F.L. football team asked the team to change its name, which is considered a racist slur against Native American people. In addition, several Native American leaders and organizations wrote to N.F.L…