Talking to Your Kids about Racism—and Other Stories to Read Now
Talking to Your Kids about Racism—and Other Stories to Read Now
Every week, we corral compelling wellness stories from around the internet—just in time for your weekend reading.
The Fullest Look Yet at the Racial Inequity of Coronavirus
The New York Times
Early testing results suggested racial disparities in who was most likely to get sick and die from the coronavirus. New federal data obtained by The New York Times from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paints a clearer picture of how systemic racism shapes public health: Nationwide, across cities, suburbs, and rural towns, Black and Latinx people in the United States are three times as likely to be infected with and twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than White people. Native Americans and Asian people are also disproportionately affected. This data-driven report explores the underlying causes.
There’s a Right Way to Talk about Racism with Kids—and Most White Parents in the US Aren’t Doing It
TED
If most White parents think it’s important to talk to their kids about race, why aren’t they doing it? When they do: How do they approach the conversation, and what are the results? This roundup of research on how families talk about race at home illuminates what White families need to face in order to raise conscious kids.
How I Became a Police Abolitionist
The Atlantic
“We called 911 for almost everything except snitching,” writes human rights lawyer Derecka Purnell. “Police couldn’t do what we really needed. They could not heal relationships or provide jobs. We were afraid every time we called. When the cops arrived, I was silenced, threatened with detention, or removed from my home…. Yet I feared letting go; I thought we needed them.” In this op-ed, Purnell, through the lens of her own journey toward abolition, shares what society would look like without policing. “When people dismiss abolitionists for not caring about victims or safety, they tend to forget that we are those victims, those survivors of violence,” she writes.
California’s San Quentin Prison Declined Free Coronavirus Tests and Urgent Advice—Now It Has a Massive Outbreak
Nature
Prisons have been an overlooked breeding ground for coronavirus due to overcrowding, spotty testing, lack of proper ventilation, and inadequate room to isolate infected individuals. At San Quentin Prison north of San Francisco, one third of the inmates and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last five weeks, serving as a dire example of what we may see happen in other prisons if health experts and officials don’t unify and take precautionary actions immediately.