Denounce Racism, White Supremacy, and Police Violence

Child care and early learning is a public good that supports every part of our lives. It supports the healthy growth and development of our children, our jobs and businesses, our public health infrastructure, and our economic prosperity. Yet the workers providing this care, who are most often women, are underpaid and undervalued precisely because they are the ones doing this work. Black women in particular have cared for America’s children for centuries—first as enslaved people and then employed as low-paid workers. The child care and early learning system we have today—poverty-level wages for the workforce, racial disparities in access to quality care for children, high costs for families, suspension and expulsion policies and practices that begin in the earliest years and disproportionately affect Black children —illustrates how child care in America remains deeply connected to white supremacy, structural racism, sexism, and discrimination. Our work to secure an equitable, effective child care system must be grounded in the racialized and gendered history of care and education in this country, and address the trauma of our children and families. This work must also sow long-term systemic change that breaks down structures intentionally created to oppress, disenfranchise, and disempower Black people in this country.