“Today” Host Craig Melvin Opens Up About the “Reality” of Raising Biracial Kids
Craig Melvin recently opened up about raising biracial children on Today.
The 3rd hour of Today host said he has to teach his kids how to navigate issues that he and his wife didn’t go through.
Melvin’s wife, Lindsay Czarniak, also shared an Instagram video emphasizing the importance of talking about race with her kids.
Following the killing of George Floyd, protests throughout America have placed the discussion around racism front and center. For 3rd hour of Today host Craig Melvin, it’s an issue he and his wife, Lindsay Czarniak, have “become more aware of,” especially because they’re raising two biracial children, Delano and Sybil.
Melvin explained that he and his wife are in “a unique situation” and “like to think we don’t see race first.” Of course, they’re very aware of it, but they didn’t want to be “consumed by it.”
Still, he admits that they’ve had to have difficult conversations. “The reality is my kids are Black,” Melvin said. “And they at some point will have to become aware of the fact that that is how society views them. I think for some children it’s a little trickier because you see both in yourself and you have these identity issues.”
That means the couple is figuring out how to help their kids work through experiences that they personally never went through. “So we’re starting to talk about how we’re going to be able to help them navigate issues that we didn’t have to deal with,” Melvin explained. “My wife is white, she grew up white, I grew up black, that was it. It’s a weird thing,” Melvin said.
Last week, Czarniak shared an Instagram video to relay her thoughts on race. “My husband and I talk about this a lot. Race is not super comfortable to talk about, and I’m not really proud even saying that, but it’s true,” she said. “I have really valued tough conversations that I’ve had, specifically with my mother-in-law who has taught me so much about what I don’t know.”
“It has become obvious that we need to be talking about all of this and not just among ourselves, among our leaders, but with our kids,” she continued. “I will have to have conversations that I never had to have with my kids as a partner with my husband.”
Czarniak also recalled a moment early on in her and Melvin’s relationship: He mentioned that one day they would have to talk to their kids about race. “And I was like, ‘Really? Is that going to be a thing?’ And of course it’s a thing, and it has not gotten better,” she explained. “So my eyes have been open to that, about the need for conversation, big conversation about race. And I’m also keenly aware that this is not just a black and white conversation. This is really about humanity.”
A post shared by Lindsay Czarniak (@lindsaycz) on Feb 3, 2020 at 6:26am PST
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