I’m watching the CNN Sesame Street kids townhall on racism, which they were assigned at school. I think it addresses some necessary and unassailable points about injustice and empathy, but I wish it did more to help children understand how and why people disagree about it.
“So why,” my kids ask, “is the President or anyone else against the protests?” I try to explain that when people get angry - even for good reason - it can be scary and people can even get hurt. People disagree about which of these is more important to worry about.
Other people might have different experiences and worries in their life, and see things from a different perspective. Sometimes that makes them right, sometimes it makes them wrong, but it’s a reality that people don’t see things the same way.
It’s not about there being no right or wrong, I told them. But people disagree about what’s right and wrong and you have to listen and make up your own mind, and then do what you think is right.
Whenever I have strong convictions on something and my children ask me what I think, I always stress that there are people who disagree with me and try, in good faith, to explain why. Not just that they’re bad people who are wrong.
