Today, November 13, is World Kindness Day. It is celebrated all over the world as a day for people to overlook boundaries, race and religion. Frankly, I’m not sure one day is enough.
This morning I received an email from my son’s middle school principal addressing some “jokes” that have been circling the campus, kids making stops at the ethnicity and religion of other students, then holding for laughter. The principal went on to discuss the steps that the school is taking to broaden the understanding and compassion of their students, including the well-intentioned (yet problematic) theme of tolerance, as well as developing acceptance and an appreciation of others. They are doing this through student talks with Holocaust survivors, an Abilities Awareness Week, and reinforcing the school mission of global citizenship. Parents have been asked to speak with their children about the same.
While I applaud the school’s response, it is troubling to think that there are families in which these conversations do not happen, and even more so to know that some of the behavior in question was most likely learned from parents, siblings and other relatives. Racist and biased humor, assuming it is “only” that, can be the result and/or creation of environments where punchlines blur with punches, and too easily the seeds of ignorance sow.
#71: The Ongoing Conversation About Race and Difference with Doyin Richards
Recently, on The Modern Dads Podcast, I had the opportunity to speak with author Doyin Richards and producer Josh Kross about this very thing: the conversations we have with our children regarding race relations in America and how to ensure that we not only have a better tomorrow, but also improve greatly upon today. Understanding and compassion have a lot to do with it.
Start with your own middle school, metaphorical or otherwise, kindness packed loosely between textbooks and gym clothes, and let it spread like so much body spray.
World Kindness Day is a step in the right direction, and while it will take well over 364 more to get there, I hope that we are able to keep kindness all the year, and the good humor of it.
Whit Honea is the co-founder of Dads 4 Change and the Social Media Director of Dad 2.0 Summit. Deemed “the activist dad” by UpWorthy (and one of the “funniest dads on Twitter” by Mashable), he is a regular contributor to The Modern Dads Podcast and author of The Parents’ Phrase Book—a family guide to empathy. Whit has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and is the 2015 winner of the Iris Award for Best Writing.
