Dialogue and Discussion: First Steps Towards Change
It is difficult to open a newspaper, turn on the radio or watch the news these days without being assaulted by the atrocities that are happening on a daily basis to people of color, immigrants, and families in this country and around the world. These are not Republican or Democratic issues, these are violations against humanity, common decency and respect. Hatred and ignorance is not created by any one person or administration. However acts of racism, bigotry, discrimination and violence are being encouraged, tolerated, celebrated, and condoned by far too many people in places of power and influence. It is my belief that we must take action to offset the damage and destruction that is being done to the very fabric of our humanity.
Children who are impacted by racism, discrimination or bigotry have a greater chance of feeling isolated, worried, fearful, and alone. In Sliding Into Home Flip faces a heightened awareness of his place in his family as a trans-racially adopted child and encounters a racist bully who leads him to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a person of color. While the book addresses these issues with heart and humor and does not come close to mirroring the magnitude of oppression and violence that occurs around us daily, children readers who identify with one or all of these challenges may find themselves stirred emotionally by the book nevertheless.
Sliding Into Home offers the opportunity to open dialogue with children about topics that don’t come up in everyday conversation and helps them dig a bit deeper into their own personal experiences in order to grow an awareness of what it means to be a person of color, an immigrant, or part of a minority group. When we engage in conversation with young people about issues that they do not tend to discuss among themselves and ask them to consider what race, discrimination, bigotry, tolerance and equality means to them, we open doors of dialogue and interest that may bring them closer to one another, and to those they have been unable to connect with due to racial bias and misunderstanding.
It is so much easier to do nothing about the violence and violations that black, brown, and immigrant peoples are experiencing in our country if you are a white person. But these crimes against humanity, against people because of the color of their skin or their ethnic origins impacts each and every one of us. The deterioration of values that lift all people to their highest potential will impact our society as a whole. We should not, can not sit back and allow these acts of violence and hatred to occur without participating in some way to bring about change. We each have a gift, a talent that we might use to contribute to the effort to change the course we are on. Dialogue, connection, conversation is a first and crucial step towards that change.
It is my deepest hope that Sliding Into Home will foster understanding and connection among children of different backgrounds. It is through meeting and knowing one another that we break down walls of racism and hatred. It is through taking the time to wonder what it might be like to walk in the shoes of another that we build empathy and compassion. When we accomplish these things we are walking in the direction of peace and unity rather than intolerance and separation. Please join me in helping young people find a voice and a narrative that brings them together.