Diverse schools are taking a new approach to anti-racism: Training white parents

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Amid the blowback over anti-racist lessons for America's schoolchildren, another effort to grapple with structural racism has gained steam: training white parents.

Lessons can be as simple as lunch.

White, affluent volunteers have been overheard commenting to kids about the nutritional value of a meal like Lunchables, said Christina Feliciana of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Social Welfare, in a 2020 YouTube video.

But a parent’s decision to place “junk food” in a student’s lunch may be the right choice. Calorie-dense food is often cost effective – and a way for a caregiver to show love to a child. The food may be a reward recommended by a therapist. Feliciana’s co-presenter and colleague, Robert Watts III, added that students with special needs can have rigidity around texture. Allergies can rule out alternatives. Plus, people derive value from hewing to family and community traditions around food.

In response to an offhand remark like “That’s not healthy” or “Tell your mom to pack you fruit,” Feliciana said, a child whose family already felt disconnected and disempowered might repeat the message at home, making the family even less likely to engage with the school.

Lessons in cultural humility like this one have been a feature of teachers’ professional development for quite some time. But trainings have largely focused on how students are treated, not families, and they’ve been targeted at school officials, not parent and caregiver volunteers.

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