Welcome to the Color-Brave Caregiver Framework
by EmbraceRace
The Color-Brave Caregiver Framework is a blueprint for the important role we caregivers can play in raising children who are thoughtful, informed, and brave about race. It breaks down our work as Color-Brave Caregivers into two parts:
Ways of Being, the dispositions we must cultivate in ourselves; and
Practices, the kinds of activities we can do with our kids.
Illustrations by Tyler Mishá Barnett
We can help our children best by leaning into certain Ways of Being.
We cultivate these Ways of Being because we need to learn, grow, and challenge ourselves in order to fulfill the roles of a Color-Brave Caregiver.
Steadfast Guide
An Color-Brave Caregiver makes space for a child’s respectful curiosity about and understanding of race, communicating and demonstrating that they are open and there for the child and will be there again and again and again.
Compassionate Self Examiner
A Color-Brave Caregiver consistently thinks about and explores their racial experience in their skin and regularly critically examines their beliefs and behaviors around race.
Brave Learner
An Color-Brave Caregiver is grounded in an open, active, and courageous approach to their own learning and models this approach with their child.
Antiracist Advocate
An Color-Brave Caregiver recognizes that antiracist talk and thinking must be paired with antiracist action – individually and collectively – in order to achieve racial equity.
A Color-Brave Caregiver has two important roles
By actively and intentionally engaging children in ongoing learning about race and racism, Color-Brave caregivers help shape children’s values and beliefs AND help them critically process what they see and hear from other sources.
But if I speak positively about racial difference with the kids in my life, why would they need more guidance than that?
Because...
Children’s racial learning comes from many sources
Learning about race begins very early — even before children are walking and talking — and continues throughout childhood.
Learning about race begins very early — even before children are walking and talking — and continues throughout childhood.
Children are seeing, hearing, and feeling lots of messages about race in their environments and are picking up on racialized patterns, even if adults don’t think they’re noticing.
If we embrace our two roles as direct sources and as active guides, we can raise a generation of racially healthy children who are thoughtful, informed, and brave about race.
See how
Color-Brave Caregivers engage in a range of Practices in order to raise children who are
- resilient and joyful in their own skin
- inclusive and empathetic toward others
- critical thinkers about race and inequity
- racial justice advocates
