A California coalition of progressive advocacy organisations, Black Californians United for Early Care and Education (BlackECE), is campaigning for schools to recognise "Black English" within a state programme that promotes multilingualism among young children. The group describes its aim as advancing "language justice" for Black children in early childhood education, arguing that the way many African Americans speak should be affirmed as a legitimate, rule-governed language rather than treated as incorrect. The push matters because it seeks to reshape how schools treat dialect and correction in early learning, a topic that has drawn political controversy.

BlackECE is a partnership involving groups such as Californians Together, Catalyst California and Early Edge, and its 10-point policy framework also includes reparations. Co-founder Ashley Williams told PBS she was teased as a child for "talking white" and does not want Black children, including her son, to feel "shame" or that their voice is not valued because of how they speak. "Black English" is a broad term for the way African Americans speak, most commonly defined as African American Vernacular English (AAVE), described as a systematic dialect with distinct phonological, syntactical and lexical features. Fox News framed the effort as being driven by "radical left-wing" groups.