The Challenges of Parenting African American Children in this Time of Social Upheaval
By Natnael Amare, Senior Engineer Process Validation in Manufacturing Sciences and Technology, Pharmaceuticals-Biotech
As an African immigrant raising African American children in a mixed-race family, our household is a typical representation of the diversity that exists within the African American community and in the United States. For that reason, African American History month and Juneteenth are important to our family and something that we celebrate within the larger Bay Area community.
My youngest son, Tedros, is curious about his identity and excited to learn more about what it means to be an African American. A couple of years ago his school connected the celebration of the African American experience to a discussion about Colin Kaepernick and his advocacy for the safety of African Americans. In this lesson, Tedros and his classmates learned about peaceful resistance, empathy and courage.
Unfortunately, we are all reminded regularly of how unsafe this country remains for young African Americans. While we all continue to have conversations around equity, fairness and justice, the shooting of a young jogger, Ahmaud Arbery, the death of George Floyd, and the loss of so many other black lives brings up difficult conversations within African American families. We encourage our children to express their feelings and engage peacefully in dialogue around these issues. Below is a poem written by my 18-year-old nephew, Yonatan, who is a long-distance runner. Yonatan loves running. I don’t want him to give up his passion for running, but how can I ease his fears?
As a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, these times are hard. We try to teach all our children about fairness and kindness. We ask them to respect authority. And yet, these standards are not held true in our society. How can we guide our children to a world that is based on love and equality when social injustice continues? These are the difficult discussions facing every adult who loves a child and are particularly challenging for those of us raising children of African American descent. I wish I had all the answers, but I don’t. But together we must find them.
I’m a scientist and one that focuses on validating processes to make medicines every day. In fact, our team in Berkeley developed and manufactures one of the most complex large molecule medicines. Yet, even though it is complex and big, we found a way to consistently process and deliver a medicine that is safe and effective. Humanity has advanced in some ways beyond what we thought was possible. We must apply the same courage and empathy to our problem solving systemic and structural racism.
The science of humanity is very complex. But I believe that even the biggest and most complex challenges can be broken down and we can find solutions to change how we do things — the processes we use and the way we behave — that can create a safer world for our kids. The first step is dialogue. Let’s keep talking to one another and engaging with community leaders to take apart the complex and define each process and each behavior that can create a safe and effective society. I know change won’t happen overnight, but let’s keep talking and keep moving forward.
