Thursday 7 November 2019

Afrocentric Nursery School in Brooklyn - Counteracting White Education and Fostering Self Representation

Afrocentric Nursery School - Starting with a Positive Self Representation















'It's because we are a suffering people', says Founder Fela Barclift

We are not afraid of using the word race, says Barclift
Her curriculum's focus is on empowering ethnic minorities
Children of all races can attend the school
The school has been criticised for creating separation over integration.
How does the founder respond? - If people agree that such schools are okay, she says, 'that means there has to be a conversation about why it is okay, why is it needed?, why do we have something like this..instead of being able to all be together?''

A bold initiative to give tools to young children to build their self esteem and look in the mirror and be able to see and love themselves. Here in Cologne, nursery school girls who are dark-skinned are already wishing they had blond hair and blue eyes and are being told they are ugly. Blond hair and pink skin are more beautiful, my 4 year old daughter tells me. Another dark-skinned mother was told her skin was the colour of shit by a preschooler. These are real examples to drive home the point - there is a problem with the education system when children are allowed to play games like 'who is afraid of the Black Man?`, and when children in nursery schools cannot find positive representations of themselves.
If we are to begin the debate on integration, then this is a good place to start - introducing interculturality at the youngest levels, having trained, mixed staff who are conscious of discrimination and having libraries and professionals who can guide the staff and children about living and loving their diversity. There are many manuals and single initiatives in the different states and they are all laudable but there has to be a collective effort that trickles down to the nursery and primary schools and reaches the children most in need of it.

Do we also need ethnic-empowering schools in Germany? I believe everyone stands to benefit from such initiatives until the standard curriculum changes to include real diversity.

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