Systemic racism, explained (to kids)

Romy Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Today, Explained to Kids takes on the summer of protests and violence.

04neighborhood_materials.pdfSummer is coming to an end, and as we head back to school here on the Island of Explained, we’re thinking about the fun times we’ve had with the Experimoth and Bored the Whale. But we’re also thinking about some of the hard issues this summer has raised: news about people being killed because of the color of their skin.

So we’re devoting our fourth, and final, episode of Today, Explained to Kids summer series to systemic racism. We talk with Kennedy Mitchum, a recent college grad who got Merriam-Webster to update its definition of racism; Morgan Givens, a former police officer who now produces his own kids podcast, Flyest Fables; Vox reporter Fabiola Cineas; and 11-year-old Jolia Bossette, who wrote her elementary school graduation speech about Black Lives Matter.

Listen to the episode with the young people in your life — or just because — and then come back here to download our episode discussion guide and some activities that build on what we learned in the episode.

Thanks to early childhood education specialists Rachel Giannini and Saleem Hue Penny for developing our learning materials!

Listen to more Today, Explained to Kids episodes:

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04neighborhood_materials.pdf