Today's Lesson: The AAPI Experience
Children are not born colorblind. We know that babies notice physical differences, from skin color to eye shape and hair texture. That is why we believe being able to talk about people’s differences with your children is so important. We also understand these conversations can be complex, and often we don’t know where to begin. We hope this unique set of resources provides you with language and parenting strategies to talk with your child about race and racism, in particular when it comes to the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander experience.
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Learning Levels
Early Childhood Adolescent AdultRead
Danbi Leads the School Parade
Danbi is thrilled to start her new school in America. But a bit nervous too. When she walks into the classroom, everything goes quiet. Everyone stares. Danbi wants to join in the dances and the games, but she doesn't know the rules and just can't get anything right. In this story, she learns to navigate her two cultures and realizes that when you open your world to others, their world opens up to you. Check out more about Danbi Leads the School Parade here.
EXTRA CREDIT: Awesome Asian Americans is a children's anthology featuring 20 groundbreaking individuals who have made a huge impact in US history, from athletes to artists, to scientists and writers.
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Talking about Race
In this clip from Coming Together—a Sesame Street workshop built to help children talk about racial justice—the Lee family discusses fairness, justice, their coping strategies, and their hopes for the future. We would suggest watching the video yourself first before deciding whether to share with your children. While you watch, think about the conversations you’ve had with your own children around race and racism, and notice if there are any similarities.
EXTRA CREDIT: Explore more of Coming Together, Sesame Workshop's commitment to racial justice. Together with experts, Sesame Street has designed developmentally appropriate resources to help you guide your child to be smarter, stronger, and kinder—and an upstander to racism.
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Let’s Talk About Race: Explain, Connect, Describe, Explore!
Engaging meaningfully with children around race and racial justice can set the stage for a lifetime of pride, understanding, strength, respect, empathy, and confidence. In this Sesame Street in Communities interactive, audio-based activity, you get to choose from the five topics to help you engage with your child in real time in important conversations, thoughts, and actions around race and racial justice.