Watch These 12-Year-Olds Talk About Race More Candidly Than Most Adults Do

These New York City middle-schoolers opened up about their experiences with race and racism in WNYC's "Being 12" series.

Why you can trust us

By Araz Hachadourian

< 1 MIN READ

Jul 10, 2015

Over the past year, high-profile issues of racial violence have flooded the news. These stories have left parents and teachers with the difficult task of discussing racism with their kids and students, and adults have come up with some creative ways to approach these tough issues.

New York Public Radio asked a group of 12-year-olds, “What are you?”

Last year #FergusonSyllabus became a popular Twitter hashtag for teachers to share tools and methods they used to discuss the police killings of black men and boys like Eric Garner and Michael Brown. Around the same time, asked American kids to send handwritten cards to Central American child refugees facing deportation. The outcome was an outpour of empathy and compassion.

Recently, New York Public Radio (WNYC) decided to go straight to kids themselves and asked a group of 12-year-olds, “What are you?” for the radio series “.” Their answers revealed the array of complex experiences that pre-teens face every day based on their race.