What does darkness mean for you? My black is colorful, fast, dynamic, innovative and shiny. My darkness meant that I grew up by putting my smoothed hair with a hot comb that would burn the top of my ears if I did not hold my ears quickly and effectively. It meant that my mother had a personal fryer and would make me catfish and fries for breakfast before going to school. At the same time, she taught me about classical music, how to ski and widened my world vision in a way that moved far beyond the southern side of Chicago. My aunt told me about our historical excellence and instilled in the importance of learning the incredible things that our ancestors had made. She showed me that my way in life was intended to follow theirs and that I deserved greatness. For me, the darkness has always been vast and multifaceted; It never integrates into a box, stereotype or an unclear idea.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for some children, especially children who are in their first years of identity development. They hear the word black and immediately make harmful associations with the word and color. In the nursery and kindergarten, they combine mud, dirt and poop with a black word. Students rarely name it as a favorite color and only reserve its use for bad guys and bad things. This creates a barrier to see the many facets of darkness and creates a fundamental and negative association with color. This association directly affects the way children start to think race and identity. In order to fight against negative associations and give black children a chance to build a strong feeling of self, we must create school environments in early childhood where we can explore and build a positive racial identity.
Knowing that racial identity is formed in the first years of the development of a child, I actively work to fight against the role of the anti-black in our work. Affinity The groups are one-way because they offer a safe and connected community where children can see mirrors of themselves and their families. The dedicated and useful work that occurs within affinity groups is not done in a silo. However, it is only a facet of the work that must occur in an educational environment of early childhood that successfully helps students develop their black identity. Teachers, administrators, caregivers, staff and other students all meet to create a space so that black children evolve in their identity. They do so by exploration, community building and celebration.
Explore identity
When I first asked the black children of my school: “What does it mean to be black for you?” They responded with confusion, some saying that they did not know, others declaring that they are not black and that they are “only one person”. Others focused on the idea of being simply and talked about love to play with friends, have fun and be nice. Many of them were able to talk about their black parents or friends, apparently distinguishing themselves from the idea of darkness.
With my black kindergarten students, we read the book “HotorThen created a list of words that could describe the colors of our skin. Often, children start to hold negative associations with black and brown colors and favorable associations with beige, fishing and white. We continued to work on this list, asking students to extend their ideas and think about other things that “make us happy”. With this prompt, they start to associate words like caramel, sun, honey, fort and coffee with black and brown, slowly moving towards discovery, appointing their own skin colors and taking a step towards understanding what black means for them. At each stage, they learn more about their identity and ask questions that help facilitate our exploration. This exploration continues in their family environment and allows curiosity to prosper.
At the start of this work, the parents began to share what they noticed at home around the development of their children’s identity. They noted the positive changes and their pride in being black:
My child had a little trouble loved his skin completely. We often heard how they really wanted white skin … Well, the other day, I rubbed the lotion on the legs as I usually do. I started to make my usual “Oh we have to keep your skin beautiful and beautiful” and unexpectedly, they answered with “it’s already beautiful !!!!” I was so happy to be able to cry. Whatever you do, keep doing it.
My child is so excited by his lunches with Mrs. Lauren and is looking forward to him every week. She is perfectly aware of being one of only two black children in her class. She returned home the other day and reported that she was the only black child in her extended day class. She shared that it makes her sad. I am so grateful that you create this environment where our children are supported, their racial and ethnic identities are celebrated, and they can develop a feeling of belonging and community. So important! THANKS!
Each of these stories validated the need for work focused on identity in the first years and encouraged us to create more spaces for our children. From the creation of a theme song full of affirmations to the fact that the children play in their own clip, we have made sure to find additional means to celebrate darkness.
Celebrate and build a community
In an act of visibility, we centered our black teachers and staff and created “The Black Joy Project”, where teachers, black staff and administrators expressed what Black Joy meant for us. I showed it to my six second -year classrooms, and all my students – white and colored students – were delighted to look at it. After watching the video, the children said they felt “proud”, “ecstatic”, “safe and comfortable”, “brilliant” and “sad that blacks do not always feel safe” and a child reported that the video was “deep”.
Finally, other members of the community became aware of our early childhood identity work and asked to participate. THE Association of black students is made up of students from the black high school at the laboratory high school. In partnership with their advisers, I asked some of these black high school students to visit my first -year students. They showed up, played games, colored and connected to hairstyles. Seeing teenagers smiling and laughing while committing with young children filled our corridors with joy. After their return to their campus, I asked them to think about their visit and that was part of their answer:
“Yo, can you imagine what you would like now if we had that then?” “When we were on the early childhood campus, they divide us into two so that each class can be more diverse. At one point, a child was the only black student in his class.” If only they had had more teachers, advisers and black staff; If only Blackspace had existed then. »»
These children understand the importance of creating an environment where children can be their all their diet, discover their identity and fully embrace their darkness. More importantly, they can viscerally understand the consequences of what is happening if the positivity around the beauty of the darkness is not nourished, cultivated and amplified.
Future black
Afrofuturism Reinvents the history of blacks through art, music and cultural practices, recognizing the past, the present and the future of darkness. He combines science fiction, African mythology and social and political liberation to create visions of a more stimulating and joyful future for blacks. It is the future that I imagine for my black students – a future where they can exist in their darkness only and shamelessly.
Earlier, I talked about how black children in my Pwi replied when I initially asked them: “What does black be black for you?” After years of exhibition in the study program and the pedagogy of early childhood, this is how our black children discussed their darkness at the end of their first school year:
“It means I can be what I want. I am courageous, I am passionate about myself and I like to be black. Because black is beautiful and powerful.
“Being black means that we are more likely, that we are strong and that blacks can do whatever they want to do!”
Seeing my black students develop a feeling of positive identity brings me immense joy. Their words fill me with light and make me smile in a way that hurts my cheeks. I see them in the corridors, and as they run towards me, their excitement validates my existence, and their tight hugs make all real.
As intensely as I feel joy for this work of identity, I also feel pain. I do this work for black children from my school, and I am always faced with many challenges. The work is not easy and is enough with a high intensity of labor. I often think of balancemaking sure that I take care of myself while taking care of so many others simultaneously. It is a whole work of love – a huge time is devoted to the design of the study program, the examination of pedagogy and to make sure that we remain culturally reactive. In the end, the risk of professional exhaustion is real.
There is also the fear that emerges during the discussion of racial identity with young children. Although I can discuss all the ways in which the affirmation of darkness is necessary in the context of early childhood, it is something that is threatened, and there are many spaces where to do this work is not authorized. I have often wondered what is the future of black spaces when we are in the anti-black time?
All well considered, I remain attached to this work because my students remind me every day that it is necessary and that I have no choice. I look towards the future and I stand very much so that more black children can have positive developments around their darkness and multiple facets, as a whole. As one of my beautifully melanaries black students said: “Being black means that I have beautiful skin, no one else is like me, I am perfect as I am and we can change the world.”
