Black History Month for Multiracial Children

You can’t be afraid or hesitant to celebrate cultures that aren’t your own when raising multiracial children. It’s our responsibility as parents to ensure our biracial babies feel whole in their identities by celebrating the entirety of their legacy. My kids are mixed, Latino and African American, and I want them to know how I cherish Daddy D and the African American culture that raised him. Today I’m sharing how we celebrate Black History Month, as it’s important to show multiracial families honoring African American history – for our children most especially.

Ways We Celebrate Black History Month

Building a cultural legacy is a state of mind that I parent in constantly. It doesn’t just happen one or two months out of the year. I have pride in our cultures and push those virtues into my parenting through the books we read, the dolls we play with and the way we talk about our identities. It seems trite, but after a revelation of her emerging cultural identity, I now make it a point to tell Alina she is black and how beautiful she is because of that. I want her to own her black heritage, the legacy of my in-laws, and feel the pride that I do. The Winter Olympics are taking place during Black History Month, and since there is an obvious lack of diversity in the winter games, I made it a point to teach Alina about Shani Davis, the first African American athlete to win winter gold for the United States with an Ice Skate Cheer Sign. We had fun doing the craft together and learning about an athlete that worked hard to achieve success – a simple parenting lesson on commitment and perseverance exemplified by a man that “looks like us” is just one way we honor Black History. It really is the simple things – done consistently – that adds up.

We celebrate Black History Month as a multiracial family because I want my children to see their parents united in their identities. Just as Daddy D attempts to speak Spanish, I make sure we’re honoring his African American culture. We do this through celebrations of food cultures, too.

Black History Month Festival at Springs Preserve

Every year we attend our community’s Black History Month Festival. It’s an afternoon where we can listen to live gospel choirs, eat soul food and relax with like-minded families. This year was so fun to know that Alina was really getting it. She watched in awe as the UNLV Step team wowed the crowd and even met Miss North Las Vegas, a beautiful woman with long, curly hair and brown skin. And if I haven’t already embraced Las Vegas enough, giving my daughter a chance to see so many other multiracial families in one spot really made me fall in love with my city again. Everywhere she looked, there were black dads and white moms, black moms and Latino dads. Vegas really does have something for everyone 🙂

Celebrating and honoring black identity happens much more than one month out of the year, or what even one blog post can hold. And when you’re nurturing a multiracial child to be proud of their identities, doing so is paramount.