Lucretia Carter Berry, PhD • March 10, 2026
One of the most magical moments happens in classrooms with children.
After we’ve spent time wondering together—reading stories, naming the beautiful hues of our skin, learning language for what we see and experience—I’ll hear a small voice ask a question that stops the room:
“If we’re all shades of brown… why are some people called Black and some called White?”
And there it is.
A five-year-old, equipped with curiosity, language, and a psychologically safe space to think, has just questioned a centuries-old construct that many adults have never paused to examine.
In that moment, joy sparks in me.
Because what I am witnessing is not just curiosity.
It is possibility.
It is a glimpse of the dream.
The Dream
I dream of communities where people live richly among one another in ethnic and cultural diversity—without attaching bias, fear, or hierarchy to the color of someone’s skin.
A world where race no longer determines unjust outcomes.
Where it no longer builds and maintains caste, hierarchy, and class.
Where it is no longer a mechanism used to divide people or to stoke distrust, fear, or harm.
I dream of a society where race no longer flattens our identities into narrow boxes that promise the illusion of safety but strip away our complexity.
Instead, we embrace the fullness of who we are—our ethnicities, cultures, nationalities, histories, and stories.
We understand that phenotype and race are not the same thing.
And in that understanding, we grow free.
The Paradox
Here is the paradox.
If we want to be free from the destructive power of race, we must first become very good at understanding it.
Superficial answers will not do.
Pretending we don’t see color will not heal what centuries of racialization have produced. Colorblindness cannot dismantle a system built precisely on the meaning assigned to color.
To disentangle ourselves from something, we must first learn to see it clearly.
We must learn how race was constructed, how it has been used, and how it continues—as an institution—to shape outcomes.
Only then can we refuse its lies.
Only then can we loosen its grip.
Only then can we begin the work of renewal—together.
My Inheritance
My understanding of this work is personal.
My Black parents lived through the brutal reality of Jim Crow segregation. They carried the wisdom and survival skills required to navigate a world structured against them.
They gave those tools to me.
I became the first generation in my family to attend desegregated public spaces—beginning with preschool.
Later, I attended an HBCU, where I experienced the deep cultural affirmation and intellectual tradition of historically Black institutions. After that, I earned graduate degrees and taught in predominantly white institutions.
Across these experiences, I learned something essential:
Structural literacy matters.
Knowing how systems work—how identity is interpreted, how institutions operate—equips us to navigate diverse spaces with clarity and dignity.
Today, I carry that understanding not only as a scholar and educator, but as a Black woman in an interracial marriage raising three multiethnic daughters.
For our family, understanding racialization is not theoretical.
It is essential.
It helps us see ourselves within racial constructions—and also beyond them.
Why Children Matter So Much
This is why I care so deeply about educating and engaging our children.
Children are naturally curious.
They notice patterns. They ask questions. They test ideas.
When we give them language, historical understanding, and safe spaces to think, they are capable of extraordinary clarity.
They see what adults have been conditioned not to see.
They question what adults have been taught not to question.
Our children are the substance of a relentless hope.
And I believe this with my whole heart:
If we don’t keep them in the dark, our children will light up the world.
The Dream, Again
So here is the dream I am inviting us to imagine together.
We become so skilled at understanding the mechanism of race that its lies no longer go unquestioned.
We learn to see it clearly enough to disentangle ourselves from it.
The disillusion and destruction birthed by the invention of race belong to the past.
And we resist the comfort of dismemberment—the ways race has taught us to fragment ourselves from one another.
Instead, we choose to re-member.
To bring ourselves back together.
Starting with the inner work of remembering our shared humanity.
Continuing with the collective work of building communities where every child can flourish.
The dream is not naïve.
It is not detached from reality.
It is rooted in the quiet, revolutionary moments I witness when a child raises their hand and asks a question the world forgot to ask.
And in those moments, I see it clearly:
The future we long for is already flickering in the imagination of our children.
Our task is simple, though not always easy.
Tell them the truth.
Give them language.
Create space for their questions.
And then watch what becomes possible.
Lighting the Way Forward
The following resources are offered to help caregivers, educators, and communities engage children with honesty, wonder, and hope as we work together toward realizing the dream.
Lucretia Carter Berry, PhD, is a distinguished author, educator, and speaker, as well as the visionary founder of Brownicity, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering education designed to inspire a culture of true belonging and justice for all. Lucretia was also a valued contributor to incourage.me, where she shared her insights and wisdom on topics of faith, resilience, and personal growth. Through her books, Teaching for Justice and Belonging – A Journey for Educators and Parents (2022), Hues of You – An Activity Book for Learning About the Skin You Are In (2022), and What LIES Between Us – Fostering First Steps Toward Racial Healing (2016), her impactful TED Talk, and her commitment to building just communities, Lucretia encourages meaningful engagement that transcends boundaries, fostering personal development, resilience, and the transformative capacity within each of us.
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