Throughout the history of the U.S., Black and brown communities have relied on community cultural wealth to survive and even thrive in the face of systemic oppression. Community cultural wealth describes the knowledge and care shared within communities. This is often represented by how members of the community affirm one another and pull together resources when facing obstacles or challenges. Because of systemic racism, policies often don’t acknowledge the strengths and assets that exist in these communities.
“Racism has shaped child care and early learning policies in the very same ways it’s shaped all other policies and systems in the United States, and that’s really to fit a narrow idea of what families and children need, what they deserve, and how much access to it they should have,” shares Alycia Hardy, Vice President of Policy at the National Black Child Development Institute. “That idea really marginalizes or pushes aside the unique needs, ideas, desires, values that exist across Black communities.”
In order to survive, communities that are accustomed to being left out of policy decisions and resource allocations often create solutions of their own. Home-based child care is often one of these solutions. By tapping into the cultural wealth and natural assets of the people, home-based child care providers in underserved neighborhoods form communities that support and uplift families and children through care and belonging.
Examples of Black and brown communities creating their own solutions around child care can be found all throughout history. In 1899, Selena Sloan Butler decided to start a kindergarten program in her living room after realizing she would not find one that accepted Black children near her home in Atlanta. Today, many home-based providers begin their careers after having children of their own and failing to find affordable, community-based child care options that meet their needs.
“We need to move away from one-size-fits-all policies and ideas, and move toward trusting, particularly Black, communities with identifying what their needs are around their unique experiences, in the context of who they are,” says Hardy.
Parents often choose home-based child care providers who share their culture and language. Shared cultural and social experiences between children and their caregiver provide children with an important sense of individual and collective identity. This helps shape their self-esteem and promote positive decision-making skills later on in life.
Despite the crucial role of child care providers in children’s development, early care and education is one of the most underpaid fields in the country and women of color are overrepresented in it. This inequity can be traced back to the lasting impact of chattel slavery in the U.S.
“Historically non-parental child care and caregiving work is connected to the unpaid forced labor of Black women and girls, which reduced the overall value of that work, because of the dehumanization of the people providing that care,” Hardy says. “Today, this form of care remains [as] extremely low-paid and undervalued work.”
Wages and policies should reflect the strengths and assets of communities while addressing the challenges they face.The solution doesn’t have to be complicated, Hardy says.
“Working to shift power in decision-making, evaluating impact, putting the ideas of community cultural wealth and intertwining them with how policy and research is shaped from the very beginning is really important. Then, creating processes that allow community cultural wealth to be valued and centered instead of being seen as a threat or something to protect against. Child care needs widely vary by family. Each family should have the opportunity to engage in the care that best fits their needs.”
