Dear Prudence,
My wife and I have a young son, who just started daycare (and walking). I’m Black and my wife is biracial. Aside from my day job, I’m a doctoral candidate who researches whiteness and racism, and I also write and speak about these things. We’ll be sure he has plenty of friends of many backgrounds, but considering my research (and, you know, my life), it can be a challenge for me not to worry that the white families (and teachers) he encounters may … slip up. I’m not so worried about the January 6 types where we live, but the polite, warm people who still might call him “articulate” and so on. Basically, how, as a Black parent (and researcher) with a Black son, might I best handle white liberal parents (and teachers) who still have Work to Do? I surely can’t lecture everyone, and I don’t want him not to have friends because Daddy is annoying.
— Trusting Other Parents