Message from ABC’s Founder
Hello! Mitzi here.
I founded Antiracism Books for Children (ABC) with a mission to supply classrooms and early education centers with positive diverse representation books. The initial inspiration came from my desire to purchase these kinds of books for my 2-yr-old son — I wanted him to (1) see himself represented proudly and (2) be exposed to other perspectives outside his cultural identity. My hope was that in doing so, we could imbue the values of equity and inclusion at an early age. I reached out to his daycare to donate a set of positive diverse representation books, and the idea of ABC was born.
This has been an incredibly important passion project for me. With the backdrop of rising anti-Asian violence and mass shootings in 2021, I became paralyzed by the complex and nuanced emotions that were triggered and brought to the surface — a constant oscillation of anger, guilt, shame, sadness, anxiety, and fear. I needed a way to channel trauma energy into productivity, so I shifted my focus to building a better future for my son.
As a parent, I started this as a tangible way for me to bring teachings of diversity, equity, and inclusion into our home. As a Founder, I now feel called to a larger mission of bringing representation into budget-constrained classrooms to help build an antiracist future.
Thank you to everyone who made this happen!
First and foremost, thank you Sophie for being my right-hand, bringing operational and executional excellence into everything you do. This wouldn’t have been possible without you. Thank you Emily C and Dan for the enormous effort, late nights, and weekend work you put in to bring the ABC Library to life. Thank you Jen for your thoughtfulness in making our website. Thank you to Sitara for your help on the design. Thank you Alton, Emily L, Josephine, and Solomon for your support in telling our story. Thank you Jessica, Maia, Joey, Nathan, and Tobin for your help in building our impressive database. Thank you Audrey for being my go-to for all things legal-related, and thank you Christine for your help in making ABC official. Thank you Kath and Sondra for your guidance to take ABC into our next stage of growth. Thank you to the many educators, administrators, nonprofit leaders, and thought partners for your valuable input. Thank you to my mom, Zoe, for the generous donation to get us started. And above all, thank you to my husband, Jeff, for your unconditional support, and to my son, Jet, for being Mommy’s inspiration. I am immensely grateful.