A Sociohistorical Critique of the Systemic Disenfranchisement of Milwaukee's Black Women Childcare Providers

Abstract

Through Critical Race Theory and Black Feminist Thought, the authors critique discriminatory legislation by Wisconsin's Department of Children and Families. The findings of this meta-ethnography present the counternarratives of 21 Black women childcare providers to interrogate the way Wisconsin early care and education (ECE) governing agencies (1) criminalize and police Black women ECE business owners; (2) utilize tactics of intimidation and control based in a lack of organizational integrity; (3) devalue the experiential knowledge and cultural wisdom of Black childcare providers through culturally unresponsive measurements of quality. Implications suggest steps toward a more culturally relevant system of quality assessment.