Posted on 03/31/2014 6:01:45 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
Last summer, my family moved from Brooklyn to a small town in the Hudson Valley. We love our new life, but one thing about the community is not so great: It’s predominantly white. What will it mean in the long run if my white children don’t see and befriend people who come from different racial backgrounds? And are there steps I can take to instill racial sensitivity and acceptance in my kids despite the fact that they’re growing up in an ethnic bubble?
To find out, I dug into research on the causes of racial bias and talked to developmental and social psychologists, race-relations researchers, and Africologists. The good news is that the answer seems to be yes—there are things I can do to keep my kids from harboring racial prejudice. Namely, I can talk to them about race.
First, a caveat: I’m writing this article as a white parent with white kids living in a mostly white neighborhood. I know that my experiences, perspectives, and considerations differ markedly from those of parents with different ethnic backgrounds living in different situations, and I also realize that I know nothing about the racial landscape that minority parents have to navigate with their kids. For many minority parents, talking about race is not an option—it’s essential in helping their children move through a world that sees a “black kid” and not just a kid. Although I talked to researchers with diverse backgrounds while reporting my piece, I’m guessing that my findings and advice will apply predominantly to white parents like me. Still, I would love to hear from all readers on the issues discussed in this column, so please, send your thoughts, advice, and feedback to melindawmoyer@gmail.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
have them get jobs in the Department of Corrections...
If living in a heavily mixed race community is so important to these airheaded liberals why did they pick one of the few remaining Hudson Valley communities that hasn't been overrun with Holders People and Moochers?
There are many (maybe too many) small Hudson Valley communities chock full of the kind of diversity they seem to miss.
Dear Melinda Wenner Moyer,
Your problem is an easy one to solve.
Sell out and move to Detroit or Dearborne.
Yes. I’ve never understood the urge for racial self-flagellation. I live amongst decent people. All else is superfluous mental masturbation.
I suspect that this lady has moved to a nice white town and is having guilt feelings, so she is advertising a desire to ‘diverse’.
I suspect that this lady has moved to a nice white town and is having guilt feelings, so she is advertising a desire to ‘diverse’.
Ummmm, we 'befriend' people 'in need' or who are 'inferior'. Creepy. I could hardly get past the sentence - so insulting and condescending...
Who wants to bet these liberal elites love traveling to third world countries - and can't get enough of 'sharing' with their friends how brave and POOR the people are... and the horrible little shacks they live in... and the dirty water...
You might be interested in my experience since it has some parallels. I grew up in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. The city and the state were very much racially divided; there were many blacks and some Hispanics but they stayed in their section of town and we stayed in ours, i.e., there was an understanding. Every one of my classmates from kindergarten through high school was white, and by that I mean no blacks, no Latinos. The only time I interacted with blacks and Latinos was in the three years I served in the U.S. military. When I got out I returned to Alabama and went through college. Again, no blacks, no Latinos, straight through graduation in 1966.
In other words, your experience was based on living in an all-white community whereas mine was based on living in a segregated community. Of course, it's no longer that way. I think the colleges in Alabama integrated maybe two years after I graduated.
Perhaps she should have moved to Harlem.
I can’t wait to find out what happens when the author finds out the nice couple with the sweet kids who live down the street are *GASP* Christians! And Republicans!
I’ll bet she’s so tolerant that she’ll insult the family to their faces in front of her children.
Tolerance is the virtue of believing in nothing.
blacks live in mostly black areas and i doubt none of them sit there thinking how “not great” it is there aren’t more non-blacks in their neighborhoods.
Although the writer may have moved to the east side of the Hudson, the first town that popped in my head is on the west side of the Hudson; Pearl River, in Rockland County. ALWAYS known as ‘Lily White Pearl River’. A lot of NYC cops and firemen live there.
The next town I thought of is Stony Point, also in Rockland County, also home to a lot of NYC PD and FD. Also pretty white still, lots of ‘Asians’ these days, and too close to Haverstraw, which homes many gangbangers and general low lifes.
THAT said, I have lived in both of these towns, for over 40 years combined.
Back in the 90’s when my kids were little I decided to replant us in Highland Falls, Orange County NY, BECAUSE of the diversity. Whites, blacks, West Pointers... I imagined a great melting pot of love and everyone singing ‘Kumbya’.
Well. That didn’t happen.
There were terrific families of all stripes, but the mayor at the time needed to stay in office, and he opened the Section 8 program and advertised in the worst places around us. And the worst people came for the free housing and the drives to the polling stations.
Everyone knew who the drug dealers were - the deals took place on Main St, in front of the Post Office and across from the Town Hall. Word was, the State Popo (known as The Ivory Tower of Albany) said ‘leave them alone, Highland Falls is drug hub and we need to know where the stuff comes from and goes to’. ..... Yeah. OK.
My kids grew up with a few nice black people, but mostly aggressive, abusive, drug dealing black people. The West Point kids were ok, but their poop didn’t stink as much as the Townies.
The black kids disrupted class and accosted one of my kids on more than one occasion, the West Pointers got all the favors, and the locals whose parents paid the insane school taxes took a back seat to it all. If I could have afforded to move back to Lily White Pearl River I would have. I am damned sorry I didn’t.
The writer of this article knew damned well where their family was moving to, and HAD to post an apologetic article about ‘Oh! The people here are so white!’.
My advice? ‘SHUT UP, and be glad you moved to nice neighborhood. Try not to screw it up’.
OH! WAIT! HANG ON!!!!
I just noticed at the end of the article that she is ‘based in Cold Spring, NY’.
Right across the Hudson River from Highland Falls, you cannot get ANY whiter than Cold Spring. Expensive, clean, cliquish... think of an ‘exclusive’ golf or country club.
And she expects anyone who knows the place to be surprised at the lack of color on her neighbors.
Oh! LOL! ROTFLOL!!!
Buy a place in Aryan Country and then lecture about teaching your kids that people of color are worthy of friendship.
Oh, eff you, Melinda Wenner Moyer, you liberal, white hypocrite, eff you.
The “Slate” author of this item, Melinda, is a total idiot!
In my entire school years in Dallas, there were only a couple of Mexicans in Elem school, a couple in Jr-Hi and a hand-full in Sr-Hi. There were no blacks.
My grandparents lived and had a corner grocery in South Dallas (mostly black and Mexican). I spent several weeks with them every Summer as a kid and me and the other kids all got along just fine. There were no racial biases apparent. Most of the store’s customers were black or Mexican and I often carried the sack of groceries to the houses of black ladies (they would tip me a nickle).
IMO, if people would just stop emphasizing that various ethnicities and races are not compatible with each other, the small kids will just grow up to accept others that are not just like them.
Yes, the Hudson Valley is a real mixed bag. Knew some people in Pearl River years ago; I nice little place that has certainly gone up in value. Stony Point is nice, too; the proximity to NYC has made these places very expensive.
If this author wanted diversity in the Hudson Valley, he could have moved to Poughkeepsie or Newburgh; then he wouldn’t feel guilty about sheltering his kids from “diversity”.
Mike Tyson and Tawana Brawley are products of Hudson Valley diversity...
Of course just talkng about it will make it okay - that proves she really cares.
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