In the wake of racial violence in urban schools and society, we question, "Can the field of urban education love blackness and Black lives unconditionally and as preconditions to humanity? What does it look like to (re)imagine urban classrooms as sites of love? As educators, how might we utilize a pedagogy of love as an embodied practice that influences holistic teaching? How might we utilize a pedagogy of love to include Black youths' racialized and gendered life histories and experiences and their language and literacy practices? We outline and discuss five types of violence in schools (physical, symbolic, linguistic, curricula/pedagogical, and systemic school violence) which interfere with the creation and sustainability of revolutionary love in urban schools. We present examples of 'fake love' and provide the current backdrop. We operationalize revolutionary love and offer Afrocentric praxis and African Diaspora Literacy as antidotes to anti-Black types of violence that many students experience in urban schools.

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We demonstrate that Black children are not faring well in early childhood settings and suggest ways educators can work toward ensuring that Black children thrive and flourish in schools. Five types of daily violence/traumas that Black children experience in schools are described against the ethical backdrop First Do No Harm (Boutte, 2008). Evoking the Maasai legend that asks, How are the children? we share two examples of Black males’ school experiences, though we readily acknowledge that Black females experience parallel issues. We present an overview of five types of school violence (physical, symbolic, linguistic, curricular/pedagogical, and systemic), and conclude by offering ways to interrupt these to ensure that Black children are well.

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