{"id":177823,"date":"2021-02-26T18:30:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T23:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=177823"},"modified":"2021-02-26T18:43:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T23:43:47","slug":"i-took-an-anti-racist-training-workshop-for-parents-heres-what-i-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/i-took-an-anti-racist-training-workshop-for-parents-heres-what-i-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"I Took An Anti-Racist Training Workshop For Parents. Here\u2019s What I Learned."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fi-took-an-anti-racist-training-workshop-for-parents-heres-what-i-learned%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=177823&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/School-.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>The push for \u201canti-racism\u201d is moving beyond the classroom. School districts are now insisting that parents spark conversations about race and gender at the dinner table, at the movie theatre, and when their child is browsing the internet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In Montgomery County, Maryland, one of the nation\u2019s most affluent areas, parents of elementary-aged children were encouraged to participate in a \u201ccaregiver\u201d training program on \u201canti-racism.\u201d The program was run through Ashburton Elementary School in the Montgomery County Public School district.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The session lasted about an hour and was run by a \u201crestorative justice\u201d advocate hired by the school district.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Ashburton Elementary is far from the only school to host these programs, be it for teachers or children, or parents. In fact, Ashburton Elementary\u2019s Principal told parents that teachers and children have been engaging in \u201canti-racism\u201d activities for months now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I attended the elementary school\u2019s anti-racist training workshop for parents. It was run by Greg Mullenholz, the school\u2019s principal, and Yael Astor, a \u201crestorative justice instructional specialist\u201d who works for the district.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Here\u2019s what I learned from the session.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The training started by defining the most important word of all \u2014 \u201canti-racism.\u201d According to the presentation, being \u201canti-racist\u201d is not being \u201cnot racist,\u201d it\u2019s actively \u201cconfronting racial inequalities.\u201d Being simply \u201cnot racist\u201d is not enough.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>1. Race is a \u201csocial construct\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span>Principal Mullenholz started by acknowledging that conversations about race can be uncomfortable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWe know fully that conversations about race get people\u2019s hearts pumping, they create anxieties because they can certainly be uncomfortable,\u201d Mullenholz said. \u201cIf you\u2019re feeling that as an adult, there\u2019s certainly some of that going on with our students as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The slides proceeded to teach parents that while they may be talking about race, race does not exist because it\u2019s a \u201csocial construct.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This was exemplified by a PowerPoint slide that showed the U.S. Census has changed and adapted its language to include different racial categories over the years. This allegedly makes race adaptable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>During the presentation, a parent asked Mullenholz why kids were being made \u201chyper-conscious\u201d about race when race is considered a social construct. The principal said that race is used to categorize how people are oppressed and also how we can celebrate people. This gave us no insight into why kids were being forced to talk about race if race does not exist.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>2. Don\u2019t question the training, that makes you racist\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span>The alleged intent behind the training is to help cultivate an \u201canti-racist community\u201d in which all people can live harmoniously. To kickstart our \u201canti-racist community,\u201d we had to realize, and affirm, that \u201cracism is the norm, not an anomaly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The ground rules for the training were that parents must \u201cprioritize impact over intent.\u201d This meant that if my comments had a negative \u201cimpact\u201d on someone, regardless of what my intent was, I may be accused of being rude or potentially, racist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I took this to mean that if I wanted to push back against the teachers, I may be impacting someone else who holds a different perspective than me. Therefore, I should not speak out because my words could impact another person, even if my intentions were to ask a question.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At the bottom of the same slide, there was a quote that told parents they could disagree with the instructors and fellow parents, but only if that disagreement did not challenge the crux of the instructor\u2019s argument.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWe can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist,\u201d the quote read.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>3. I should be talking about race all the time with my (imaginary) children\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span>The majority of the presentation was centered around having conversations with kids as young as three years old about race and gender.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The presentation cited a study from the American Psychological Association that claims \u201cchildren are capable of thinking about all sorts of complex topics at a very young age.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cEven if adults don\u2019t talk to kids about race, children will work to make sense of their world and will come up with their own ideas, which may be inaccurate or detrimental,\u201d the study reads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It was explained to us shortly after that this study was old data from a different study repurposed to make a point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The presenters told parents that to combat racist thoughts from creeping into the minds of elementary schoolers, they should use movies, TV shows, videos, and news clips to kickstart conversations about race and gender.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The example that was used detailed a parent watching a movie with their child, and the movie made a generalization about the \u201cLatinx\u201d community. According to the training, an \u201canti-racist\u201d parent would stop the movie and have a conversation with their child about why this generalization may make them \u201cuncomfortable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Other resources for having \u201corganic\u201d conversations with children about race included a list of books and online guides. One of the online guides is called \u201c<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.raceconscious.org\/\"><span>Raising Race Conscious Children<\/span><\/a><span>\u201d and claims that their product will help \u201cdismantle the color-blind framework and prepare young people to work toward racial justice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Ashburton Elementary is far from the only school in the nation to offer \u201canti-racism\u201d programming for parents. The Gordon School, a private school in Rhode Island, has an \u201canti-racism working group\u201d specifically for white parents. The group provides \u201copportunities for white parents to examine their own racial identities and privilege, to uncover and challenge their own biases, and to develop anti-racism parenting skills.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Some schools have yet to offer full-blown workshops, instead, they have created working lists of \u201canti-racism\u201d resources for parents and students. At St. Mary Interparochial School in Philadelphia, the school created a<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saintmarys.us\/about\/antiracism_resources\"><span>list<\/span><\/a> <span>of books and online resources to become more \u201canti-racist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This is commonplace on college campuses as well. At George Washington University, the school\u2019s Office for Diversity and Inclusion created three separate<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/diversity.gwu.edu\/resources-race-anti-racism\"><span>reading lists<\/span><\/a><span>. One for books about \u201crace,\u201d one for books about \u201canti-racism,\u201d and one for books about \u201csystemic racism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/span><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em><span>member<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The push for \u201canti-racism\u201d is moving beyond the classroom. School districts are now insisting that parents spark conversations about race and gender at the dinner table, at the movie theatre, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2274327,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/School-.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"I Took An Anti-Racist Training Workshop For Parents. Here\u2019s What I Learned.","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/School-.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"I Took An Anti-Racist Training Workshop For Parents. Here\u2019s What I Learned.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}