(Washington Examiner) -- Over the weekend, the New York Times ran an op-ed titled "Can My Children Be Friends With White People?" in which author Ekow N. Yankah seems to have given up the prospect of letting his children of color truly and wholly be friends with white people throughout their childhood and as adults.
Based on his account, Yankah, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York City (one of the most diverse cities in the country), feels that the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016, the marching of white supremacists in Charlottesville in August, and the heap of Trump "allies" and "apologists" defending his every move, have made it nearly impossible for him to let his children do as they please. He does say that his children can befriend white people who "have marched in protest, rushed to airports to protest the president’s travel ban, people who have shared the risks required by strength and decency."
Even though a parent has a say in who their children should and should not be around with, completely eliminating a group of people that your children should be friends with based on their race and internal biases only further propagates the echo chamber that so many Americans on both sides of the aisle have already insulated themselves in. Protecting your children from something only makes them more susceptible to know what that something is and expose themselves to it. It's the "Adam and Eve forbidden fruit" effect. Imposing your political insecurities onto your children is not only bad parenting but is bad for the communities you claim to be a part of and for society as a whole.
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