17: Raising Black and Bi-Racial Children as a White Mom with Debbie Scheer

Raising kids can be really hard at times. And as a white mom raising black kids, it's a uniquely challenging experience. 

Debbie Scheer is Sara and Misasha's guest on the show today. Debbie is a humorist, a speaker, an MC, and a woman-about-town in Denver. She has presence, intelligence, observational skills, and she's also a white mom raising two adopted boys, one black, and one bi-racial. 

The Dear White Women Podcast is not just about race, identity, and discussions around who we are, and how we show up in the world. It is about having difficult conversations which make Sara, Misasha, and you, the listeners, a bit uncomfortable. 

Today, Debbie brings a really cool angle to the discussion because she's really funny. 

Tune into this episode of Dear White Women to learn about the difficulties of being a white mom raising black and mixed kids, and about using humor to help hard conversations.

Show Highlights:

Debbie explains why the kind of topics covered on this show are so near and dear to her heart. Debbie talks about the latest post she made on Facebook about raising black boys. The way that the response of society has changed towards Debbie's son as he has grown from a baby to twelve-year-old boy. It's difficult for moms to protect their black or mixed kids from the realities of society. Sometimes overt racism is easier to deal with than microaggressions. The difficulties of dealing with white friends' implicit bias. Having a conversation with friends about race and white privilege can really be tough. Using book clubs as a platform to get people to engage in hard conversations. Some techniques to get hard and in-depth conversations about race off the ground. Using humor effectively to deal with touchy subjects can be tricky. Looking at white women who are 'convenient activists'. Moving from social media engagements to having in-person conversations.