Racism, like most hatred, is taught in early childhood

The events of the last week have bought me to despair. The ignorance, the hatred, the apathy, have all left me reeling.  And yet hatred in the main, in my humble opinion, has to be carefully taught.  Young children in playgrounds with other children, do not see colour.  They do not see labels and they do not see race.  They just see other children.  

The way that we, as parents talk about, judge and label and treat others within earshot of our children, is absorbed by the child during the imprinting stage.  Before age 7, our children are in a hyper learning phase, essential for their survival and it means that they are absorbing everything and accepting it as fact.  This is where our children's beliefs systems are formed.  These beliefs go onto become the default programme, that they will use to run the rest of their lives on a largely unconscious basis.  It influences all thoughts, feelings and behaviour. It forms part of who we are. Most racism, hatred and trauma is absorbed and passed down through generations, mostly unwittingly.  Every look, every comment, every judgement however small, is absorbed by the child and accepted as fact until the child's critical factor is formed and they start to make their own decisions about how the world is.  Unfortunately by this time, much of the damage is done.  Therefore as parents, we hold the future of the planet in our hands.

It seems that a simple change in perspective is required and it starts with educating ourselves.  It requires self observation, self reflection and an ability to notice when we are playing out patterning that isn't even ours.   It requires you to bring your own attitudes into the light and to question them. Understanding that many of the biases, fears and attitudes handed down to us and accepted by us as children, without question, are not in alignment with our values, or the world we want for our children. 

As a white woman, bought up in a white community, I cannot say that I can begin to understand racism,  how could I. I clearly have no experience.  However as a survivor of emotional and psychological abuse, I endured over a decade of contempt, disgust, name- calling, punishment, intimidation threats and belittling, simply for being me.  Hatred is hatred, in whatever guise it comes in and it must be called out wherever it is seen.  All trauma and hate is passed down and it is our responsibility to make sure it stops with us. 

So today I invite you to consider and question your attitudes, as I do so myself, even if you don't believe you hold prejudice.  Prejudice, like fear, is sneaky and it can show up where we least expect it.  Our beliefs are really just somebody else's stories, that we have accepted as fact.  And when you can see this as a parents, then you can become intentional about teaching your children that there is only one race.  The human race.  My songs for children, "Love is the Answer" &  "Teamwork makes the Dream Work" are   very intentional songs about unity and working together as a planet, for the good of all, with "We are all Connected" will be coming on my third album later on this year.  Because when we realise that we are simply trillions of cells of the same organism, we will no longer see race, sex or age.  We will see what our children see.  We will just see the same energy that unites us. The same energy that runs through every living thing on this planet.  We will see love.  There is much work to do, but it is our responsibility as parents to shift the beliefs, in the hope of unity for all.   For Uni-Verse, simply means One-Song.

Teaching confidence and wellbeing to parents and children aged 2-7 years, through original music and FUN!  No musical experience necessary.

Join NOW  - 14 Days FREE TRIAL

^{"It's literally the best thing I have ever done with my child!"  - Jordana Matsuda - Early Childhood Educator}