Chickpeas stands in solidarity with the Black community and the Black Lives Matter Movement*. As a learning community, Chickpeas teaches our students to notice, celebrate, and honor difference. We help facilitate discussions about empathy, fairness, and equity because we want children to understand that there is no difference among us that can justify unfair or unkind treatment. We illuminate ways people are still being treated unfairly in the world, teach about real life humans who are engaged in “helping and healing work,” and provide opportunities for children to take action and see themselves as changemakers.

 

As an organization, Chickpeas recognizes it has a lot of work to do to ensure that our solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement is not just a surface level statement, but embedded in our structural policies, procedures, and practices. As an organization we commit to the following:

• Limiting our purchase and use of books, posters, and other learning materials that focus on white families, white bodies, and white culture and increasing the representation of Black families, Black bodies, and Black culture

• Purchasing from Black-owned businesses and vendors whenever possible

• Reflecting on the institutional and cultural barriers Black families face when applying to, attending, and/or engaging in alumni activities related to Chickpeas by:

  • Actively seeking to increase the racial diversity of our community by strongly encouraging Black families to apply 

  • Offering workshops for families and staff on “How To Talk to Young Children About Race” and “Anti-Racist Education”

  • Providing toolkits for families to engage in racial justice work

  • Collaborating with Black leaders in Brooklyn early education on best practices

  • Maintaining and caring for Black staff, and actively seeking to increase the diversity of our staff by strongly encouraging Black candidates to apply when we have open positions to fill

 

We know this is just the beginning of what is possible at our school and other institutions like ours. We know we are more powerful together and strive to continue answering the call for a reimagined school community and society that reflects our belief in justice and solidarity.

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*For the purposes of this statement, we are specifically referencing those who identify as Black in an effort to draw attention to the ways anti-Blackness is a specific and global form of racism and oppression. The beliefs and commitments outlined in this statement also hold true for those who identify as a non-Black person of color.

 

Resources

1. For more information on “white culture” go to: https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/2_Gulati_AB3.pdf and https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/whtieculturehandout.pdf

2. Resource for centering Blackness in curriculum: https://www.theconsciouskid.org/about 

3. https://www.blackownedbrooklyn.com and https://nymag.com/strategist/article/black-owned-businesses-support-shop.html