How can parents and teachers equip young people to resist white nationalist recruitment?
For several years, I’ve been aware that kids are experiencing white nationalist recruitment in online spaces, thanks to this webinar from EmbraceRace. Because our younger son was still pretty young when I watched it, I didn’t act on what I knew.
But when Britt Hawthorne created this video in response a young white supremacist murdering 10 Black people at a Buffalo grocery store, I knew I had to talk to our 10 year old. He is an avid gamer, and he is already old enough to be at risk of experiencing these messages of hate.
The thing is, white nationalist recruitment often starts subtly. Because our family is committed to becoming antiracist, I’m fairly confident my child would recognize (and reject) overt messages of racist hate.
I’m not confident, however, that he would recognize coded racism found in memes and slogans that white nationalists use online.
In this post, I share eight ways that parents and educators can prepare kids to resist white nationalist recruitment, whether it shows up online or at school.
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1. Do antiracism work with children regularly, not just when crises come up
Children and teens who don’t have trusted adults helping them understand race and racism will be ill-equipped to resist hate. Staying silent about race makes kids more vulnerable to racist messages like “white people are the real ones facing racism.”
I have many resources on this site about doing antiracism work with kids, especially white children. I suggest that parents of white kids start with this post.
Parents of kids of color, EmbraceRace has a mini-course on helping kids of color develop positive racial identities.
Educators, this post has inspiring examples of teachers doing antiracism work in the classroom.
I also highly recommend the book Start Here, Start Now by Liz Kleinrock if you are teaching grades 2 – 8.
2. Set your family or school values now, before white supremacist incidents occur
During EmbraceRace’s webinar on countering white nationalist recruitment, high school English teacher Nora Flanagan stressed the importance of having explicitly antiracist values. Doing the often overlooked work of including antiracist and anti-bias values in your school’s mission statement makes responding to a crisis easier. Of course, its crucial to visibly live out these values as a school before hate incidents occur.
Flanagan and the Western States Center have created a valuable (free) toolkit on confronting white nationalism in schools. In the kit, you’ll find specific actions for administrators, classroom educators, high school students, and parents.
Families will also benefit from having conversastions about your core family values. Our family did this during a family meeting about a year ago while working with the Conscious Parenting for Social Justice Collective. The process included everyone choosing the values that were most important to them (from a list of words). Then, we worked to come up with 5 core values that went into our family mission statement.
3. Talk to white children about white people who have stood up against racism
During the EmbraceRace webinar on white nationalism, the presenters talked about how white youth, especially white boys, can feel alienated during social justice conversations at school.
Young people tend to think simplistically, and that can lead to the idea that the only way to be white is to uphold racism. One antidote to this is teaching young people about white people who have engaged in antiracist action.
In this post, I offer specific examples of antiracist allies and co-conspirators, most of whom are white. I also discuss how teaching kids about white people who’ve done antiracism work is not about dividing white people into “racist people” and “not racist people.” It’s about complicating the narrative that being white has to mean participating in racism.
Related post: 21 powerful books about race and racism for kids and teens
4. Set screen rules for your family that keep you in the know
If you’re not already doing so, have family rules about using screens in the main family spaces of the house, not in kids’ bedrooms with the door closed.
Let your kids know that you want to keep them safe online, and that means you need to be able to see and hear what they’re hearing. This is not about not trusting our kids, it’s about awareness of online dangers, including white nationalist recruitment.
White nationalist recruitment isn’t limited to particular games or online sites. It frequently happens in chat rooms of games that are popular and generally positive for kids, like Roblox. It’s not possible, or in my opinion desirable, to remove your kids from any games where recruitment has been reported. You can, however, become aware of YouTubers who are tied to hate groups, and find alternatives for your kids.
5. Teach kids media literacy skills so that they can push back against white nationalist recruitment
There’s never been a time when media literacy has been more important, yet school systems across the country are cutting librarian positions.
White nationalist recruitment often involves statements that sound like they could be true at first glance. Older children and teens need to know how to evaluate and research statements and sources to know if they are true.
Common Sense Media has free media literacy lessons for educators and librarians, and Media Literacy Now has a resource guide for parents and educators here.
It’s also helpful to be familiar with common memes that include white nationalist symbols and messages.
6. Ask kids curious, calm questions about what they are seeing online or at school
It can be hard to stay calm when we learn that our kids are encountering white nationalist messaging or that recruitment might be taking place at your child’s school.
But Flanagan said that staying calm is absolutely crucial if we want our children to continue talking honestly with us.
Asking questions about anything racist, anti-Semitic, Islamaphobic, or anti-LGBTQ that they are hearing at school or online is a good starting point. Keep the conversation going by asking more questions about what they think and what other students are saying.
Flanagan pointed out that while we may tell young people to be upstanders, that doesn’t mean kids will know how to speak up when something happens. “I had to teach my sons to not be scared to tell a teacher or administrator something or talk to their friends about stuff…We assume that kids know how to have these conversations” she said.
Related post: Why shaming isn’t an antiracism strategy
7. Go beyond general anti-bullying work to address the specific issues taking place in your school
Many anti-bullying programs are general and stay at the surface level. Flanagan reminded listeners that the experts on the specific issues and incidents of racism and hate at a particular school are the students.
Administrators must give students of color’s (and students with other marginalized identities) reports of harassment serious attention. When they are not doing so, teachers and parents need to speak up. This includes formal support and encouragement for student organizations that are pushing back against prejudice and hate.
8. Learn what makes certain children particularly vulnerable to white nationalist recruitment
Christian Picciolini was recruited into the white nationalist movement as a teen in the 1980s. Today his work is preventing other young people from being recruited into extremist movements.
During the EmbraceRace webinar, Picciolini shared that he came from a loving home, but his immigrant parents were almost always working. He was longing for a sense of identity, community, and purpose, and as a 14 year old, the people recruiting him into white nationlism seemed to be providing that.
Picciolini noted that white youth who are detached from real life relationships, or have any type of emotional or physical traums are vulnerable to recruitment. He also pointed out that extremist narratives thrive during times of uncertainty, and young people are living in incredibly uncertain times.
Flanagan shared that another early indicator that boys are vulnerable to white nationalist recruitment is misogny. This is troubling on its own, and it’s often a gateway to racial, ethnic, and religious hatred.
Picciolini urged adults to “see the child, not the monster” when they encounter a youth who is embracing hateful thinking. Flanagan emphasized the importance of building trust with these young people by talking about shared values, so that gradually you can help them find a way out of these ideologies and movements.
