Strange Fruit: The Intersection Of Race And Family Dynamics

Conversations about the intersections of identify can be awkward, uncomfortable and sometimes emotionally exhausting -- especially when discussing race and gender. And especially when these conversations have to happen between parents and their children.

To that end, this week we chat with parents who are having very intentional conversations with their respective family members about ways the world assigns value to -- or holds stereotypical expectations of -- women of color.

We’re joined this week by two thought-provoking writers. Author Kay Bolden explains “Why Women in My Family Don’t Scrub Floors.”

And later, Canadian writer Anam Ahmed is the mother of two biracial girls – one who shares her Pakistani brown skin and another whose skin and hair more closely resembles the complexion of her Dutch-English-Canadian husband, which she writes about in “My Biracial Children Are Noticing We’re Not All the Same Color.”