Dr. Erin Winkler will help parents, families, and educators navigate race in a meaningful way to help children in a program titled “How Children Learn about Race and How Adults Can Help.” The program will be held at 1:30 PM on Saturday, February 8th in the lower level meeting room of the Shorewood Village Center, 3920 North Murray Avenue.
There is a myth in popular culture that children are "colorblind" or don't notice race. This leads many parents, families, and educators to avoid discussing race and racism with young children, or to be unsure how to best do so. Winkler will review the current research on children's understandings of race, including how ideas about race form, what children learn and when, why we see changes at various ages, as well as why all of this matters. She will also explore how parents, families, and educators can help children understand racial identity, racism, and racial inequities in age-appropriate ways that empower the young children in their lives.
Winkler is an associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She earned her Ph.D. in African American Studies at the University of California-Berkeley and was a postdoctoral fellow in African American Studies at Northwestern University. She is the author of the book, Learning Race, Learning Place: Shaping Racial Identities and Ideas in African American Childhoods.
This program is co-sponsored by the Shorewood Public Library and the Shorewood School District. It is free and open to the public.
More information is available at http://www.shorewoodlibrary.org/.