Following the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, citizens across the nation and the world are taking action to bring issues of systemic racism into focus. We’ve curated these resources from PBS LearningMedia to help parents and educators as we address these difficult issues with our communities’ children.
PBS NewsHour: The critical role white parents play in shaping racism — and eradicating it
Structural racism is now sharing the American cultural spotlight with COVID-19. While solutions to racial disparities in police treatment, health care and education will likely require policy changes, some experts say decisions at the family and individual levels matter just as much. Special correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault talks to Margaret Hagerman of Mississippi State University.
Confronting Anti-Black Racism
Use these materials with middle and high school students to help them understand the long history of anti-Black racism in the United States, and think about ways to address it in their own families and communities. Resources include news coverage of recent protests, videos on the origins of the Black Lives Matter Movement and protests against police brutality within the past decade, iconic PBS documentaries on the histories of race and racism in America, and activities addressing civic engagement and elevating students’ voices.
Confronting Bias: Ethics in the Classroom
The resources in this collection provide teachers with tools to incorporate ethics education in the classroom, promote understanding of differing viewpoints, and foster civil dialogue about bias.
Black Lives Matter: Campaigning for Racial Justice
Learn about the origins, objectives, and makeup of Black Lives Matter, an activist black youth-led movement that campaigns against police brutality and other forms of racism, in this video from Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now.
Additional Resources
Some additional resources include A Call to Action for White Educators Who Seek to be Anti-Racist, How Black Art Can Spark Conversations with Children, and Civil Rights: Internet Activism and Social Change.
Our friends at WXXI have also collected PBS LearningMedia resources for educators, parents, and caregivers to support them when discussing: race, racism, protesting, riots of the past, civil rights, Black history and historical figures, bias, past and current events, and more. View, download, and share these resources.