‘This is almost like Ruby Bridges’: young children’s demonstration of racial literacy

Abstract

Young Children of Color in the United States experience the effects of racism on a daily basis. There have been calls for anti-bias and anti-racist education across the field of education, yet most recommendations are based on older students or studies in laboratory settings. Additionally, state and local governments have enacted legislation designed to make it harder for teachers to engage in anti-racist, anti-oppressive education. In this ethnographic study of two early childhood classrooms, children explored individual and collective racialized identities and investigated the role of race in the lives of children across time, including 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, who integrated New Orleans schools in 1960. Children also applied theories of justice to ideas about race. Findings suggest racial education should support students’ racial inquiry by acknowledging what they already experience, do, and wonder about race.