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While I agree it's ultimately very dark to reflect on what you are actually telling your kids, and what the realistic view of the world is---which is something that I agree I would not want to give to my teenage son or daughter---fucked all the way down to the n_th degree. They do not need to hear that from me (or you). They need hope, they need to dream, they need to believe and it is entirely proper that they believe dreams.
The real question is how to give them the grand view of those visions, and be realistic about it at the same time. This really is the role of the arts, to dream, to live, to love, to believe in the great worth of the human project. So I would concentrate on whatever arts they love, and let those guide them---but I am a romantic and believed all that stuff at a very early age---the nobility and command of the human spirit to overcome every injustice and wrong of the world. Well, why the fuck not?
The real issue is to make these dreams manifest in the world, to make them a vocation, the justification for becoming a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, an artist, a writer---some positive contribution to the great spirit of the human project. That's the most important thing.
All the details of social justice, Marxism for the masses, civil rights, political history, and so forth---all that detail comes later...
Actually I think you want to focus on the great international efforts of many different peoples, places, and times that have tried to create answers to these problems. Really, world history is rich with many different answers.
When I reflect on my own early life (say 11-16) the deepest moments of reflection all revolve around paintings (my stepfather was a painter so there were paintings everywhere, kitchen, bathroom, closet, living room, hall, etc). I would spend hours contemplating a painting---the miracle of its details, its eroticism, its complex structures, the mysterious lighting and folds of cloth---the smell of oil curing on canvas. How these hours turned into a deep sort of humanism, I have no idea, but they did. It's actually a complete mystery why art is the core humanity. But you can get a very similar effect by listening to Beethoven (or Bach) for hours on end--which I also did. I don't know. There is just something about the arts that communicate a larger view of life that seems inherently positive and progressive---graceful and enduring.
CG