Before Black children can even spell “discrimination,” many of them have already experienced it—in classrooms meant to nurture their growth. A recent study published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly pulls back the curtain on a devastating truth: anti-Blackness is not a glitch in the system of early care and education (ECE)—it’s deeply embedded in its very framework.
In “Interrogating the Role of Anti-Blackness in the Early Care and Education System,” scholars make a clear and urgent case: anti-Black ideologies—rooted in centuries of structural racism—have shaped the policies, practices, and power dynamics of early education in America. What’s most disturbing isn’t just that bias exists, but that it shows up in places as intimate and formative as daycare centers, preschools, and Head Start programs.
Let’s be plain: anti-Blackness doesn’t wait until high school. It shows up in preschool suspension rates that disproportionately target Black boys. It appears in the unspoken assumptions of early educators who are quicker to label Black toddlers as “aggressive” or “defiant” while reading the same behaviors from white children as “spirited” or “curious.” It’s in the curricula that erase or ignore Black culture, and in the lack of access to high-quality, culturally affirming early care for Black families navigating underfunded and segregated systems.
This study is not the first to raise alarms. But what sets it apart is its refusal to frame anti-Blackness as a side effect of “implicit bias” or a lack of training. Instead, the researchers argue, anti-Blackness is a foundational force—a social order that positions Black children as less innocent, less deserving, and more threatening from the very start.
We must be clear: these early experiences matter. ECE is where foundational development happens. It shapes how children see themselves, what they believe they’re capable of, and how they’re seen by society. When Black children are subjected to surveillance, exclusion, and lowered expectations in these critical years, the consequences echo far beyond the classroom. It’s not just educational injustice—it’s a theft of childhood.
For generations, Black families have known this intuitively. We’ve shared stories, swapped warnings, and created our own support systems to navigate and survive a world that too often misreads and mistreats our babies. But survival is not the goal—liberation is. And that means we must move from naming the harm to transforming the systems.
What does that look like? It starts with centering Black children in every conversation about early education—not as afterthoughts, but as the very measure of whether a system is just. It means investing in Black early educators, whose numbers remain too low due to historical devaluation and underpayment. It means developing anti-racist, culturally grounded curricula that affirm Black identity and joy from day one. And yes, it means calling out and rooting out anti-Black ideologies wherever they surface—whether in policy decisions, professional development, or the daily interactions between educators and children.
This work isn’t optional. It’s essential if we are to break the cycles that rob Black children of safe, affirming spaces to learn, grow, and simply be. Our liberation must begin as early as the bias does.
Because if we don’t confront anti-Blackness in early education, we are not just failing our children—we are shaping a future where inequality is learned before reading ever is.
Suggested Reading: Deepening the Conversation on Race and Early Education
On Anti-Blackness in Education
- We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom – by Bettina L. Love
A visionary manifesto for transforming schools into sites of joy, resistance, and justice for Black students. - Start Seeing and Serving Black Children: A Guide to Antiracist Early Childhood Education – by Iheoma U. Iruka et al.
Practical tools to affirm Black children and dismantle anti-Black practices in early care environments. - Suspended Childhood: How Zero-Tolerance Policies Harm Black Children in Early Education – National Black Child Development Institute
A powerful policy brief exposing the impact of exclusionary discipline on Black preschoolers.
On Structural Racism and Early Learning
- Rac(e)ing to Class: Confronting Poverty and Race in Schools and Classrooms – by H. Richard Milner IV
Explores how race and poverty intersect in education and offers equitable frameworks for support. - The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom – edited by Lisa Delpit & Joanne Kilgour Dowdy
A critical examination of language, culture, and identity in educational spaces. - Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice – edited by Jesse Hagopian & Denisha Jones
Writings from educators, students, and activists challenging racial injustice in schools.
For Parents, Caregivers, and Advocates
- Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work – by Akilah S. Richards
A radical guide for Black families reimagining education beyond systems of racial trauma. - Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools – by Monique W. Morris
Traces how schools marginalize Black girls—starting from an early age. - Don’t Look Away: Embracing Anti-Bias Classrooms – by Iheoma U. Iruka et al.
A guide for educators to build anti-racist, affirming environments for all children.
