Toward Racially Affirming Care for Black Children, Families, and Communities

This review examines Beverly-Jean M. Daniel’s We Were Not Built to Break: Racially Affirming Care for Black Children, Families, and Communities as a significant contribution to childhood studies and child-facing professions. The review considers how Daniel conceptualizes care as a racialized, relational, and institutionally situated practice rather than an assumed good. It traces the book’s attention towards anti-Black racism, child welfare, schooling, assessment, mental health, racial trauma, and positive Black racial identity socialization and considers these themes within an Australian context. The review reflects on how Daniel’s work provokes critical questions about race, colonialism, place, institutional power, and historically accountable forms of care.