Welcome to the DS Kids Blog! Now that you are here, let's get something straight right off the bat - I am not here to tell you how you should parent your child. The words, images, art exercises, and reflection prompts shared on this site are designed to add more tools to your toolbox. My bet is that most parents or caregivers reading this are not working artists. If this is the case for you, there are some very dynamic and creative tools you might be missing out on as you teach your child what it means to be a social healer and an advocate for a just and equitable world. The creative resources on this site are here to offer you more options as you do the very hard and important work of raising your kid in today's fraught society.

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What I aim to offer with these resources is an additional perspective. My perspective comes from the framework of a black woman in her thirties, raised in a relatively privileged lifestyle in the United States. I came into an awareness of social inequality relatively late, and was dismayed to discover how the brutality of systemic racism has impacted people who look like me. Growing up, I had faced minor and infrequent incidents of racial prejudice, but I wouldn't understand the underlying biases behind these events until well into my twenties. My parents had worked hard to shield me from the harsh realities of racism.

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While I am grateful for my upbringing, I also understand the pitfalls of waiting until adulthood to learn about the history of social inequities. Far from shielding me, my ignorance caused a stream of broken relationships due to my refusal to address biased ways of thinking that I had unintentionally developed during my childhood and teenaged years. The fact of the matter is that if you do not adequately and consistently address systemic racism you will unintentionally adopt biases of your own. This will happen whether you want it to or not. Racism has infiltrated our social atmosphere, and we cannot avoid being impacted by it in the world that we currently live in. It is part of the proverbial social ocean that we all swim in.

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As with all issues, the way to clean up our social atmosphere is to first acknowledge that there is a problem. We are socially ill and we cannot get well until we begin to address our collective impediments. This holds true for your child. While you may feel that not addressing the racist history of our country keeps your child innocent, if you have not properly addressed your own hidden (or not hidden) biases, you are certainly passing them on to your child. Even if you were not doing this, someone else that your child comes into contact or relationship with is, whether this person be a friend, teacher, or another family member. I do not have to tell you that children are like sponges (especially when they are young!) and that they learn most through imitation. They imitate what you curate for them, but they also imitate qualities and ways of thinking that you don't realize they are learning from you.

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I hope that you will use the resources on this site as family conversation starters on race and racism. I'll offer a disclaimer - some of these conversations will challenge you. I urge you to commit to being okay with these uncomfortable feelings early on. Art will offer you a gentle way of engaging some very difficult realities, but it will not hide the ugliness of certain parts of our collective history. Be okay with this as well. There is an abundance of beauty to also celebrate that will help balance out the more difficult parts. Commit to the journey. Commit to acknowledging, learning about, and addressing the truth. Do this and your kid will have an example of what it looks like to actively seek ways to heal our broken world.

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With all of that said, thanks for being here. I honor your desire to instill loving, anti-racist principals in your child. This is challenging work, but you are not alone! By the way, I love chatting with parents and caregivers. Moments of open and honest dialogue are where we can learn from one another. If you'd like to chat, reach out and let's set a time!

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With Gratitude,

Dea Jenkins