What does Blackness imply to you? My Black is colourful, quick-witted, dynamic, progressive and good. My Blackness meant I grew up getting my hair straightened with a sizzling comb that may burn the tops of my ears if I did not rapidly and successfully maintain my ears down. It meant my mother had a private deep fryer and would make me catfish and french fries for breakfast earlier than I went to high school. On the identical time, she taught me about classical music, methods to ski and expanded my worldview in a means that moved far previous the South Aspect of Chicago. My aunt informed me about our historic excellence and instilled in me the significance of studying in regards to the superb issues that our ancestors had executed. She confirmed me that my path in life was destined to comply with theirs, and that I deserved greatness. For me, Blackness has all the time been expansive and multifaceted; it has by no means match inside a field, stereotype or uncultured thought.
Sadly, this isn’t the case for some kids, particularly kids who’re of their early years of identification improvement. They hear the phrase Black and instantly make dangerous associations with the phrase and colour. In Nursery and Kindergarten, they affiliate mud, dust and poop with the phrase Black. College students hardly ever identify it as a favourite colour, and solely reserve its use for dangerous guys and dangerous issues. This creates a barrier to seeing the various sides of Blackness and creates a foundational, detrimental affiliation with the colour. This affiliation immediately impacts the best way that kids start to consider race and identification. With a purpose to fight detrimental associations and provides Black kids an opportunity to construct a robust sense of self, we should create early childhood faculty environments the place we are able to discover and construct optimistic racial identification.
Understanding that racial identification is fashioned inside the early years of a kid’s improvement, I’m actively working to fight the position of anti-Blackness in our work. Affinity teams are a technique this may be executed, as they provide a protected and linked group the place kids can see mirrors of themselves and their households. The devoted and purposeful work that occurs inside affinity teams just isn’t executed in a silo. Nonetheless, it’s only one side of the work that should happen inside an early childhood academic surroundings that efficiently helps college students develop their Black identification. Lecturers, directors, caregivers, employees and different college students all come collectively to create house for Black kids to evolve of their identities. They do that by exploration, group constructing and celebration.
Exploring Identification
Once I initially requested Black kids inside my faculty, “What does being Black imply to you?” They answered with confusion, some stating that they didn’t know, others stating that they aren’t Black and that they’re “only a particular person.” Others centered on the thought of simply being and spoke about liking to play with buddies, having enjoyable and being sort. A lot of them have been in a position to speak about their dad and mom or buddies being Black, seemingly distancing themselves from the thought of Blackness.
With my Black Kindergarten college students, we learn the ebook “Honeysmoke” after which created a listing of phrases which may describe our pores and skin colours. Typically, kids start holding detrimental associations with the colours black and brown and favorable associations with beige, peach and white. We continued engaged on this checklist, asking college students to develop their concepts and take into consideration different issues that “make us really feel glad.” With this immediate, they start associating phrases like caramel, sunshine, honey, sturdy, and low with black and brown, slowly constructing their means towards discovering, naming their very own pores and skin colours and taking a step towards understanding what Black means to them. With every step, they study extra about their identification and herald questions that assist to facilitate our exploration. This exploration continues of their residence surroundings and permits for curiosity to thrive.
Early on this work, dad and mom started sharing what they observed at residence round their kids’s identification improvement. They famous the optimistic modifications and their delight in being Black:
My youngster has struggled a little bit with utterly loving their pores and skin. We’ve usually heard how they really need white pores and skin… Effectively, the opposite day I used to be rubbing lotion on their legs like I often do. I began to do my normal ‘oh we’ve to maintain your pores and skin good and exquisite’ and out of the blue, they responded with ‘it already is gorgeous!!!!’ I used to be so glad that I might cry. No matter you’re doing, hold doing it.
My youngster is so enthusiastic about her lunches with Ms. Lauren and appears ahead to it each week. She is conscious about being considered one of solely two black kids in her class. She got here residence the opposite day and reported that she was the one black youngster in her prolonged day class. She shared that it makes her really feel unhappy. I’m so grateful that you’re creating this surroundings the place our youngsters are supported, their racial and ethnic identities are celebrated, and so they can develop a way of belonging and group. So vital! Thanks!
Every of those tales validated the necessity for identity-focused work within the early years and inspired us to create extra areas for our youngsters. From making a theme music filled with affirmations to having the youngsters star in their very own music video, we made certain to search out extra methods to have fun Blackness.
Celebrating and Constructing Group
In an act of visibility, we centered our Black college and employees and created “The Black Pleasure Challenge,” the place Black college, employees and directors expressed what Black pleasure meant to us. I confirmed it to all six of my second grade lecture rooms, and all my college students—white and college students of colour—have been thrilled to look at it. After watching the video, the youngsters reported feeling “proud,” “ecstatic,” “protected and comfy,” “awesometastic,” and “unhappy that Black folks do not all the time really feel protected,” and one youngster reported that the video was “profound.”
Ultimately, different group members turned conscious of our early childhood identification work and requested to take part. The Black Scholar’s Affiliation consists of Black highschool college students at Lab’s Excessive College. In partnership with their advisors, I had a few of these Black highschool college students go to my first-graders. They launched themselves, performed video games, coloured and linked over hairstyles. Seeing youngsters smiling and laughing whereas participating with younger youngsters stuffed our hallways with pleasure. After they returned to their campus, I requested them to mirror on what their go to was like and this was a part of their response:
“Yo, are you able to think about what now could be like for us if we had had that then?” “Once we have been on the early childhood campus, they break up us into twos so that every class might look extra various. At one level, one child was the one Black pupil in his class.” If solely that they had had extra Black lecturers, counselors, and employees members; if solely Blackspace had existed then.”
These youngsters perceive the significance of making an surroundings the place kids will be their entire selves, study their identification and absolutely embrace their Blackness. Extra importantly, they’ll viscerally perceive the results of what occurs if positivity round the great thing about Blackness just isn’t nurtured, cultivated, and amplified.
Black Futures
Afrofuturism reimagines Black historical past by artwork, music and cultural practices, acknowledging the previous, current and way forward for Blackness. It combines science fiction, African mythology and social and political liberation to create visions of a extra empowering and joyful future for Black folks. That is the long run that I think about for my Black college students—a future the place they’ll exist of their Blackness uniquely and unapologetically.
Earlier, I spoke about how Black kids inside my PWI responded once I initially requested them, “What does being Black imply to you?” After years of publicity to early childhood curriculum and pedagogy, that is how our Black kids mentioned their Blackness on the finish of their first grade faculty yr:
“It implies that I will be no matter I need. I’m courageous, I’m enthusiastic about myself and I really like being Black. As a result of Black is gorgeous and highly effective.”
“Being Black implies that we’ve extra probabilities, that we’re sturdy and Black folks can do something they wish to do!”
Seeing my Black college students develop a optimistic sense of identification brings me immense pleasure. Their phrases fill me up with gentle and make me smile in ways in which make my cheeks damage. I see them within the hallways, and as they run towards me, their pleasure validates my existence, and their tight hugs make all of it actual.
As intensely as I really feel pleasure for this identification work, I additionally really feel ache. I do that work for the Black kids in my faculty, and nonetheless, I face many challenges. The work just isn’t straightforward and is kind of labor-intensive. I usually take into consideration steadiness, ensuring that I’m taking good care of myself whereas concurrently taking good care of so many others. It’s all a labor of affection — an unlimited period of time is put into designing the curriculum, analyzing pedagogy and ensuring that we stay culturally responsive. On the finish of the day, the danger of burnout is actual.
There’s additionally worry that emerges when discussing racial identification with younger kids. Though I can focus on the entire ways in which affirming Blackness is critical inside the early childhood setting, that is one thing that’s below risk, and there are numerous areas the place doing this work just isn’t allowed. I usually discover myself questioning, what’s the way forward for Black areas once we discover ourselves in anti-Black occasions?
All issues thought of, I stay dedicated to this work as my college students remind me daily that it’s essential and that I’ve no alternative. I’m wanting towards the long run and standing sturdy in order that extra Black kids can have optimistic developments round their multi-faceted Blackness and identification, as an entire. As considered one of my superbly melanated Black college students stated, “Being Black means I’ve stunning pores and skin, nobody else is like me, I’m excellent the best way I’m, and we are able to change the world.”