ArcaMax

This year's National Day of Racial Healing, sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, emphasized the importance of children growing up in supportive communities that nurture their talents and stimulate their desire to learn in school. In a short video presentation, the foundation's president and CEO, La June Montgomery Tabron, discussed how all children deserve to live their lives free from "racism, discrimination and bias" and that they should grow up in a "just world" where "everyone can succeed." In reflecting on her comments, I thought about how children view the world from their innocence and how they do not judge their peers from a racial lens unless prejudice has been taught to them. Children taught to love and respect others are open to friendships that transcend race and culture. A beautiful example is a video that went viral five years ago of two adorable toddlers -- Maxwell, Black, and Finnegan, White -- excitedly running toward each other on a New York City sidewalk in their neighborhood. Giggling and brimming with joy, the boys hugged, causing many to comment on the wholesomeness of their bond at such a young age. If only adults could maintain such pureness and respectability.

Enabling children to grow up in the "just world" the W. K. Kellogg Foundation envisions will always be more than a daunting challenge. In thinking about our present times, race relations have greatly improved since the Jim Crow era and the civil rights movement. Our nation is more racially and ethnically diverse than at any other period in our history, and the U.S. Census Bureau projects that people of color will comprise over 50% of our population by 2044. Pew Research Center data from 2020 revealed that only 11% of a sample size of 11,001 adults viewed this as negative. However, more recent Pew studies are showing that many Americans feel we are regressing on racial equality. In a 2023 Pew report examining how people view Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy, 58% who believed that "efforts to ensure equality haven't gone far enough" do not think "there will be racial equality in their lifetime." This survey had a much smaller sample size of 5,073, but the results provide a snapshot of people's outlook on the future of racial progress.

As an educator, I have a significant role in helping shape a "just world" for the future of our young people. I work with college kids, a cohort older than the children mentioned in the W. K. Kellogg Foundation video. The spring semester African American sports history class I teach at Ohio State University's Lima campus falls under the general education requirement of "Cultures and Ideas and Diversity: Social Diversity in the United States." I explain to students at the beginning of the course that they will be studying race relations in our country through sports history and integration. So far, I can tell they enjoy examining our nation's past using a sports narrative. We recently finished our section on Jesse Owens after students viewed the 2016 biopic "Race." We discussed how Owens and boxing great Joe Louis became American symbols of patriotism and democracy in triumphing over German athletes Luz Long and Max Schmeling during the 1930s. My students found it extremely interesting that Owens and Louis were among the first Black athletes to be deemed as Americans and that their feats helped inch the country toward integration. I also pointed out that Long and Schmeling rejected the Nazi propaganda of Adolf Hitler's regime and befriended their Black athletic rivals. One student mentioned watching "Race" allowed her to have a deepened understanding of how intense discrimination was when Owens was a student-athlete at Ohio State, and she expressed awe and appreciation for how far we have come. I genuinely believe teaching students history in this manner will enable them to stand up against prejudice and unfairness to make our country a better place.

My final thoughts on the W. K. Kellogg Foundation's continued theme of racial healing are that for it to happen, we must be divinely transformed, as King taught and preached. King wrote that we "become new creatures," referencing 2 Corinthians 5:17, and "transformed nonconformists" by opening ourselves up to love all people through Christ. Through this love, we "gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit."

========

Dr. Jessica A. Johnson is a lecturer in the English department at Ohio State University's Lima campus. Email her at smojc.jj@gmail.com. Follow her on X: @JjSmojc. To find out more about Jessica Johnson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate, Inc.