As grown-ups, it is all of our duty is to help dismantle systems of injustice. The first step is to bring our young people into the conversation. 

“My child is too young to talk about race.”

This statement is simply not true. Babies as young as six months old notice racial differences. But how do these simple observations of difference turn to prejudice, to hate? It is through the insidious messages of a racist society. It is through silence. We must fight from our homes, our families, and in our communities for equity, for justice, and for the lives of our country’s Black citizens. We fight this fight with the conversations we have, the protests we attend, the petitions we sign, the businesses we support.

Filament is committed to combatting racism in our work for and with young people. Every child deserves to grow up in a healthy, equitable world. Our children deserve better than the society we have created.

We have compiled resources to help you start and continue these difficult conversations in your families. We cannot be silent. We must build a world in which every child can grow up free from fear of hatred and violence.

Resources for caregivers and children:

• NPR Life Kit – Talking About Race with Young Children
• For white parents of white children- Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America
• A resource round-up for talking about race with young people
• Books for children about activism and activists
• Books featuring Black characters
• Maya Espiritu’s Collection of storybooks featuring AAPI characters and authors
• Miss Katie Addresses Anti-Asian Sentiments (for kids)

Support Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander Communities:

• Resources on Supporting Asian/Asian American Children and Youth
• Asian Mental Health Collective: https://www.asianmhc.org/
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice: https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/
• AAPI Community Fund

Filament has a white leadership team. We realize that racism and privilege are present in our culture and our theatre. We recognize the need to work as an organization to dismantle and reorganize the system that perpetuates racism and privilege. We have begun this work, but there is so much further to go. We ask our artists, stakeholders, and audience to call us in and keep us accountable in our commitment to becoming an anti-racist institution.