Why center Black children?

Why center Black children? This question has been posed to me in different ways for the past two years. My response is always, “Why not?” I answer this question with a question to compel self-reflection. Why ask that question? What’s behind the inquiry? What do you really want to know?

 

Most often, the questioner has no good reason to NOT center Black children’s education as a topic for analysis and discussion. My question back to them usually causes dissonance as they perform the mental gymnastics required to justify their question, grapple with the hows and whys of their feelings about Black children, race and racism, and the unapologetic bass in my voice. I watch and wait patiently as they arrive, with my guidance, to the fact that the question itself is predicated on an unstated, unconscious focus on whiteness; rooted in anti-Blackness. The question is coincidentally emblematic of the very reason we need to center Black children and representative of the schooling spaces Black children navigate.