Gabrielle Union On Reaffiriming Her Daughters’ Blackness

Actress and mother Gabrielle Union is making sure that her children are continuously reaffirmed in their Blackness. 

In  a new ELLE.com State of Black Beauty essay, the L.A.’s Finest star shares on how she finds proper school environments for her daughters Kaavia James, 2, who she shares with husband Dwyane Wade and his daughter Zaya, 13. Union does not want the standardized Eurocenteric assimilation to infiltrate their minds. 

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“What I’m trying to do with our two daughters is understand that if I cannot provide a school environment that is as diverse as the global population, I have to do more to constantly make sure the girls are reaffirmed,” Union, writes.

She explains that handing her young girls books to read or “watching Black Is King on a loop” is simply not enough curriculum or visibility of their Blackness on a day to day basis. 

“We have to surround them with additional teachers they may not see at school. It becomes another job,” she continues. “Part of that is constantly reaffirming their Blackness outside of them so they can constantly see themselves in the flesh, mirroring what we’re teaching at home.”

Union adds that as the world continues to change with the levels of anti-Blackness progressing the need of being “diligent to fight it with self-love and the elevation of Blackness” is needed.