Nonprofit EmbraceRace helps parents explain race to children

EmbraceRace was founded in 2016 by a couple who believe it is never too early to start conversations with children of all races about racism

News about the police killing of George Floyd was everywhere. Officials at the Berkeley, Calif., school, where Perfecta Oxholm’s son attended kindergarten last year, decided not to talk directly about the death with the students. That didn’t stop the children from asking questions. Over the next year, an anti-racism group started by Oxholm delved into ways parents could answer those questions and discuss race with their children. The mother of two also turned to EmbraceRace. The Amherst, Mass., nonprofit was founded in 2016 by a couple who believe it is never too early to start conversations with children of all races about racism. Andrew Grant-Thomas, who is Black, and Melissa Giraud, who is multiracial, started the nonprofit when they found few resources to help them talk with their young daughters about race. The nonprofit’s approach, Grant-Thomas says, can be summed up in a simple mantra: “Start young, and keep going.”