A Somali-run Seattle daycare is facing accusations of racial discrimination after workers were recorded telling a reporter that her children could not attend because of her appearance, amid a broader investigation into publicly funded childcare providers.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
A Seattle daycare is facing allegations that employees refused to accept white children after a reporter recorded an exchange in which workers said her children could not attend because of how she looked.
Post Millennial reporter Katie Daviscourt approached Hormuud Home Family Daycare in South Seattle while visiting childcare providers in the area as part of a broader investigation into possible misuse of public daycare funding.
“If I wanted to bring my kids here, could they attend?” Daviscourt asked two female workers outside the daycare.
“If you’re looking like this, how [could] I accept you?” one of the workers replied.
Daviscourt’s cameraman then asked what the worker meant.
“Looking like what?” he asked. “Is it cause her hair’s uncovered?”
“And blonde?” Daviscourt asked.
According to the footage described in the report, the worker nodded.
The exchange prompted accusations that the daycare was excluding prospective children based on race or appearance.
Daviscourt’s visit to the facility was part of a larger effort to examine several Seattle-area daycare operations. According to her reporting, some locations she visited did not answer their doors, while neighbors at certain addresses said they did not see children attending the facilities.
Some of the daycare providers examined were reportedly receiving between $40,000 and $70,000 per month.
The reporting raised questions about whether public funds were being distributed to childcare operations that were not serving the number of children reflected in their payments, though the information provided does not establish that fraud occurred.
Daviscourt’s reporting subsequently drew criticism from the Service Employees International Union, which accused her of making “racist attacks on immigrants.”
Daviscourt rejected that characterization.
“I’m not going to be intimidated by the @SEIU,” Daviscourt wrote on X. “Knocking on doors and nicely asking if they are daycares is not ‘harassment of immigrants.’”
She also said she had been subjected to a racial insult during her reporting.
“Furthermore, the only one who experienced any form of a ‘racist attack’ that day was myself, as I was called a ‘redneck’ by an aggressive Somali man,” she added.
The allegations involving Hormuud Home Family Daycare center on the recorded interaction with the workers and Daviscourt’s interpretation of their remarks. The information provided does not include a response from the daycare to the discrimination accusation or any finding by state or local authorities.
Original article
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