Parenting While Black: A Letter to Daycare About “Crazy Hair Day”

To be Black and raise Black children comes with a lifetime commitment to safeguarding their physical and emotional safety as much as possible as they navigate systems that are hostile to them. The education system is but one of many. In this week’s episode, I share an experience that highlights how some things that are taken as “normal” or “routine” pieces of the curriculum can be harmful to Black children.

Blog Post referenced in this episode: On “Crazy Hair Day”: A Letter to Daycare

Articles Mentioned:

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy Degruy

Times Black Girls Were Suspended for Their Hairstyles

Wearing natural hair, braids now protected in New York Schools,

Stop doing “Crazy Hair Day”

The Problem with “Crazy” Hair Day

Yet Another Black Girl’s Hair Policed by Her School, Her Afro Called “Out of Control”

Black students at Massachusetts charter school served detention, suspended from sports teams for wearing hair in braids

When Black Hair Violates The Dress Code

Tiana Parker, 7, Switches Schools After Being Forbidden from Wearing Dreads

Parents Demand School Let Their Kids Wear African Head Wraps