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Drake's Jennifer Harvey on Raising White Kids in a Racially Unjust America

Abingdon Press

For white people who are committed to equity and justice, living in a nation that remains racially unjust and still deeply segregated creates unique challenges.  These challenges begin early in life and impact the racial development of white children in powerful ways.

On this edition of Talk of Iowa, Charity Nebbe talks with Jennifer Harvey, author of the new book "Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America." (Abingdon Press)  Harvey, a writer, speaker and professor of religion at Drake University, says that our kids can often handle more layered truths than we give them credit for.

She told us: "We need to think about and work on developing more of a multi-dimensional way of thinking about the white part of our histories--the challenge is to not be afraid to give our children a more truthful and more complex picture of their own history." 

During this Talk of Iowa program, Charity speaks with Harvey about why teaching our kids to be "colorblind" is not the answer and how we can better raise white children to be active and able participants in conversations abut racial inequity.

This show originally aired on February 1, 2018. 

Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa
Dennis Reese was the mid-day host for Iowa Public Radio