Kristen Bell has been vocal about teaching her daughters that being quietly non-racist just won’t cut it.
In an interview with Channel Q’s The Morning Beat, she discussed how both she and Dax Shepard are discussing it with their two little ones, Delta, 5, and Lincoln, 7.
“I showed my daughters some of the images that are happening right now, because I think that they have more durability and more resilience than we give them credit for,” Bell, 39, said during an interview earlier last week.
“Specifically,” Bell added, she discussed with her daughters about “the parallel of what was happening in Michigan, where there were white people yelling in the face of cops, holding guns and nothing was happening, versus people that were sitting on the ground protesting peacefully, being tear-gassed. And I said, ‘What kind of problems do you see with this picture? Tell me what you’re looking at right now.’ “
“And we had a very honest, hard, uncomfortable conversation about what was happening right now,” she said. “Because I will — you can put it on my gravestone — I will raise anti-racists. I will talk about it with them forever.”
Bella also mentioned her message behind her children’s book, which focuses on inclusivity. Previously, Bell has shared with PEOPLE how she hopes the book “creates a whole new group of people that is non-exclusionary.”
While “evolution tells us to look for differences,” Bell told The Morning Beat, “I want to talk to my kids about looking for sameness, and sameness comes in the form of values and personality and action, not of colors.”
And while both she and Shepard, 45, are “very opinionated,” it is to be expected that Lincoln and Delta would inherit those traits into their own persons. But Bell joked, “They’re a nightmare, because they will tell you your opinion.”
“We constantly joke about the fact that we’re raising two girls — they’re going to be a nightmare for 18 years, but God bless, when we send them into the world, they are going to be formidable, opinionated, kind, morally compassed women, and I’m so grateful for that,” Bell added.
Bell also added how she does not care what professional path her daughters take when they grow older or “what their sexual choices” or “love choices” will look like, “I just want to love them because we have one ride on this planet and what is the friggin’ point of spending it hating?”
And in regards to what is happening in the U.S. in the current moment following Floyd’s death, Bell shares:
“I am not looking for a pat on the back — I am looking to be part of the solution. And I think white people need to be part of the solution, and they need to post when they donate — not for a pat on the back, but simply to say, ‘I’m here, I’m listening and I’m contributing,'” she concluded.