Parenting while powerless: Consequences of “the talk”

Whitaker, Tracy; Snell, Cudore L.

doi:10.1080/10911359.2015.1127736

Cited by 52 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Participants were well aware of how their sons are viewed in society, which decreased their confidence in police, but motivated the mothers to take a proactive approach to ensure that their sons knew what to expect during a police interaction. Similar to Ferguson's (2000) work and other literature (Brunson & Weitzer, 2011;Dow, 2019;Gonzalez, 2019;Whitaker & Snell, 2016) that discuss policing and parental strategizing, mothers did not have a considerable amount of confidence in police being able see their children as nonthreatening.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

“…This realization can negatively influence their attitudes toward police, which increases their risk for violence during police encounters, as police are more likely to respond aggressively to poor attitudes (Brunson & Weitzer, 2011). The socialization process utilized by Black parents to prepare their children for police encounters is a part of Black youth development and signifies how Black children learn to navigate encounters with police officers (Brunson & Weitzer, 2011;Whitaker & Snell, 2016). The precarious nature of police interactions forces Black parents to disregard the age of their children and implore them to engage in self-monitoring behaviors (e.g., emotional regulation, image management) that are beyond their developmental purview (Dow, 2019;Whitaker & Snell, 2016).…”

Section: Parental Strategizing and Policementioning

confidence: 99%

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Under the Radar: Strategies Used by Black Mothers to Prepare Their Sons for Potential Police Interactions

Harris

Amutah‐Onukagha

2019

Journal of Black Psychology

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The current qualitative study explores the experiences of Black mothers who prepare their sons for potential police encounters. Police presence in the Black community has historically elicited feelings of mistrust and fear among Black Americans, and those sentiments resonate today. The discrete incidents of police violence in the United States have been exposed due to an increase in media documentation of the phenomenon. Increased awareness of police violence has also provided insight into the impact that police encounters can have on Black families. A focus group was conducted with six Black mothers with sons ranging in ages from 11 to 33 years. Results highlighted strategies that participants shared with their sons to prepare for a potential police encounter, which included knowing the harsh realities of being Black, regulating their behavior, reframing negative schemas about police, and utilizing family and community supports. Participants believed that sharing strategies and instructions with their sons could enhance safety during a potential police encounter.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Section: Parental Strategizing and Policementioning

confidence: 99%

Under the Radar: Strategies Used by Black Mothers to Prepare Their Sons for Potential Police Interactions

Harris

Amutah‐Onukagha

2019

Journal of Black Psychology

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“…Black parents often worry that their children will encounter a life shattering interaction with police. This fear has led to the culturally ubiquitous “talk” where black parents instruct their children on how to safely navigate police encounters ( Thomas, 2013 , Whitaker and Snell, 2016 ). Given the scope of these phenomena it seems plausible and perhaps likely that having a family or close friend experience UTBP will have detrimental health consequences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weighed down by discriminatory policing: Perceived unfair treatment and black-white disparities in waist circumference

McFarland

Taylor

McFarland

2018

SSM - Population Health

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Police maltreatment, whether experienced personally or indirectly through one’s family or friends, represents a potentially harmful stressor, particularly for minority populations. We address this issue by investigating: (1) how waist circumference (WC) varies by personal and vicarious exposure to unfair treatment by police (UTBP); and (2) to what extent exposure to UTBP explains the black-white disparity in WC. We employed data collected from a community-based sample of black (n = 601) and white (n = 608) adults living in Nashville-Davidson county Tennessee to address these questions. Results from our final linear regression model showed that those who reported vicarious UTBP had WCs that were approximately 2 in. greater than those who did not (b = 2.03; p = 0.003). While personal UTBP was not linked to higher WC, a post-hoc analysis suggested that our ability to detect an association was complicated by selection. Binary mediation analysis revealed that differential exposure to vicarious UTBP accounted for approximately 12% of the black-white WC disparity among women. We found no black-white differences in WC among men. The association between vicarious UTBP and WC did not vary by age, race, or gender. Overall, our findings point toward the role of discriminatory policing as a potential upstream contributor to racial disparities in health.

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“…With justifiable homicide deaths disproportionately borne by communities whose pain is disproportionately devalued (see, for example, the racial empathy gap; Trawalter, Hoffman and Waytz, 2012), people-particularly parents-cope with the anticipatory trauma of their children being racially stereotyped as threats by engaging in the Talk: an informal set of guidelines on how to dress and comport oneself; how to interact with peers, adults, and especially the police in public; and how to modify one's behavior depending on the time of day and the neighborhood. The Talk functions as an attempt to mitigate the powerlessness parents may feel when reminded that, although their children face constant potential danger due to racial stereotyping, they cannot be constantly present to physically protect their kids from harm (Whitaker and Snell, 2016). Mothers in one study (Dow, 2016) mourned the choice: to engage in the Talk in the hopes of keeping their kids alive was also to take away their childhood innocencea reality of which white Americans were largely ignorant.…”

Section: Anticipatory Traumamentioning

confidence: 99%

Speaking of trauma: the race talk, the gun violence talk, and the racialization of gun trauma

Armstrong

Carlson

2019

Palgrave Commun

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This paper considers the intersection of race and gun violence through the lens of trauma. We focus on two high-profile cases of gun violence: the state-deemed justifiable homicide of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, on February 26, 2012 and the active shooting that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018. These cases illustrate not just how people in the US experience gun violence in racially divergent ways (as existing literature suggests) but also how people-particularly parents-manage the anticipation of gun violence and its trauma. To this end, we develop the concept of "anticipatory trauma" and illustrate it by analyzing a set of social practices that have emerged surrounding gun violence: parents' conversations with their children aimed at explaining and addressing their children's unique risk of gun violence. Building on existing literature on "the Talk" among African American parents, we analyze a racial bifurcation in how parents talk about gun violence. Specifically, we detail "the Race Talk" (in relation to the Trayvon Martin case) and "the Gun Violence Talk" (in relation to the Parkland case), which differentially construct children's vulnerability, the social phenomena that render them vulnerable, and the appropriate solutions for addressing that vulnerability. Without understanding anticipatory trauma as a racialized phenomenon, we risk leveling the gun violence debate-and creating gun policy that is neither politically meaningful nor practically effective for addressing the broad but complex issue of gun violence.

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Parenting while powerless: Consequences of “the talk”

Cited by 52 publications

References 9 publications

Under the Radar: Strategies Used by Black Mothers to Prepare Their Sons for Potential Police Interactions

Under the Radar: Strategies Used by Black Mothers to Prepare Their Sons for Potential Police Interactions

Weighed down by discriminatory policing: Perceived unfair treatment and black-white disparities in waist circumference

Speaking of trauma: the race talk, the gun violence talk, and the racialization of gun trauma

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