Representation Matters – Black Kids Literature Version

It’s the nature of our foster care system – which is full of its own institutional biases – that there are lots of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) kids in the system. I’m sure I’ll write more about institutional racism in another post some day. It’s a massive issue. 

Just to give you some idea of the scale of the problem, my county is 76.5% white. Out of 7 long term placements and 3 short term placements, ONE of the kids placed with us has been white. One, peeps. I know that’s just our experience and I’ve heard there are technically more white kids than Black in the county system, but I doubt it’s 76.5% white. And I don’t think my county is any worse than any other particular county.

I hate it that Black and Indigenous folks in particular are more likely to be extremely poor in this country, and more likely to be penalized for it by having their kids removed. As an Attorney for the Child I’ll do what I can to help keep together or get back together families that have had racism play a role in their family separation. But when I have my foster parenting hat on, the best thing I can do is support BIPOC kids who are with us in having a strong racial identity.

I’ll say this over and over I’m sure: Representation Matters. A lot. 

I’ve written about how Kiddo struggled with her racial identity when she first came to us, and that she’s gotten more comfortable with it over time. She still struggles with it some. She prefers the two white baby dolls we have to the myriad Black, brown, and Asian dolls we have. That sets off alarm bells for me. But she doesn’t insist she’s white anymore, loves her hair, and at least to some degree embraces that she’s biracial.

One of the things we did to help Kiddo understand and feel good about her racial identity was select books about Black and biracial kids so Kiddo could see herself in the stories. Below are just a few of my favorites. This is by no means a comprehensive list – if someone puts in effort, there are LOTS of great books that feature Black kids. Less so when it comes to Asian kids – we are struggling to find good books for Tiny. Suggestions are very welcome! And we have one lonely Native American kids book and one on the way from a friend, so we are in need of those as well.

I’m starting with little kid books. This is a universal favorite among ALL our little kids. It’s rhythmic and charming and has the most gorgeous illustrations by one of my favorite artists. Kids legit ask to read it again and again and again and somehow it doesn’t get old like some books do. 

Here’s another sweet one that littles like. It talks about a lovely little set of brown toes and gets kids sucked right in and wiggle their toes along with it.

For older kids, this was a huge favorite of Kiddo’s. There are fewer books about being biracial and we really needed a good one for Kiddo. My friend recommended this one, for whatever reason, it really resonated with Kiddo. She loved the page describing the main character’s wild hair especially. 

Speaking of hair, Kiddo and I went through quite a process of learning when it comes to her hair, and this book helped along the way. Kiddo’s favorite part was the sound the beads made clicking in the main character’s hair. Kiddo, too, loves that sound.

This last book has been a mega favorite in the household generally. Like with Please Baby Please, all our kids have universally liked it. It’s a gorgeously illustrated story of a grandma and grandson’s trip to work at a soup kitchen. You can see this one is a bit well loved at this point.

Kiddo is finally getting into chapter books and reading on her own, but that’s a pretty new thing. She got lots of books for Christmas including some with Black main characters, but I don’t yet know which will become her favorites so can’t pass along recommendations. Yet. 

That said, I have found a magazine that Kiddo absolutely loves. It costs me a small fortune to get it delivered from the UK but it’s worth it. It’s written by Black girls for Black girls. It talks about hair and race and self esteem and all sorts of important things. Some of it is still over Kiddo’s head at age 9, so I’ll hold onto old issues for her to be able to read them again in another year or so. It’s a wonderful mag. 

I’ll do a separate post on art in the future. And one on Christmas decorations. But I’m going to do one movie recommendation now along with my book recommendations because for some reason it’s a film that is too often overlooked. 

It features Rihanna as the main character, who is a girl from Barbados who has to figure out how to save the world from adorable alien invaders. Kiddo has watched the movie dozens of times, and listened to the soundtrack at least 100 times more.

It was her favorite film for years. 

Why? 

Because Representation Matters.