White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America

Gecker, Whitney

doi:10.1093/sf/soz018

Cited by 23 publications

(76 citation statements)

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“…These results highlight how each component of socioeconomic status may be associated with different types of engagement with social justice issues. For example, a parent may be educated and aware of racial injustice but, if the family has a higher income, may not find it socially appropriate to speak with children about race; this has been supported by other research (Hagerman, 2018). Income may also provide insulation from experiencing societal inequities, resulting in less impetus to prepare children for challenging disparities in society (Slopen et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whiteness in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Who is Talking About Racism With Their Kids?

Leneman

Levasseur-Puhach

Gillespie

et al. 2022

Journal of Family Issues

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The present study investigated factors associated with parent awareness and socialization surrounding COVID-19-related racial disparities among White parents of children ages 1.5–8 living in Canada and the United States ( N = 423, 88% mothers). Participants responded to an online survey about parenting during the pandemic between mid to late-April 2020. Participants reported on their level of awareness of COVID-19-related racial disparities as well as how often they discussed these with their children. Although 52% reported some level of awareness, only 34% reported any amount of discussion with their child about it. Regression models were used to further examine stress-related, socioeconomic, parenting, and news-watching associations with awareness and socialization. This study provides unique insight into which White parents are aware of racial inequities exposed by the pandemic and which are choosing to speak to their children about them. Current summary recommendations for White racial socialization and related research are also presented.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whiteness in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Who is Talking About Racism With Their Kids?

Leneman

Levasseur-Puhach

Gillespie

et al. 2022

Journal of Family Issues

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“…The data do not include young people, however, and thus questions remain as to whether and how parents' messages shape the racial learning of Black children and youth. While research has demonstrated the influence of place on children's racial learning (Hagerman 2014(Hagerman , 2018Lewis 2003;Winkler 2012), there is an opportunity to further explore parents' own everyday racial learning, the lessons they teach their children about race, and how these messages relate to children's own racial learning within local and national contexts marked by anti-Black racism. Qualitative inquiry can be particularly useful in doing so.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the extant literature on racial socialization offers important insights into the types of messages Black parents send and the correlation between these messages and children's outcomes, several scholars have rightly critiqued the extant literature-commonly based on parents' selfreports via questionnaires in the field of social psychology-for treating children's racial learning as a passive transmission of messages from parents (the assumed primary socializing agents) to child and instead argue that children learn about race in dynamic and interdependent ways (Hagerman 2014(Hagerman , 2018Holman 2012;Hughes, Watford, and Del Toro 2016;Winkler 2012). Erin Winkler (2012:7), for example, outlines a framework of "comprehensive racial learning" that includes the multiple influences (e.g., peers, neighborhood, media, schools, neighborhoods) on children's learning about race and that refers to "the process through which children negotiate, interpret, and make meaning of the various and conflicting messages they receive about race, ultimately forming their own understandings of how race works in society and in their lives."…”

Section: Racial Socialization Racial Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Race Lessons: The Role of Place in Shaping Black Parents’ Racial Learning and Educational Engagement in a Predominantly White Suburb

Posey-Maddox

2022

Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

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While a large body of literature examines Black parents’ racial socialization, few studies have employed a sociological lens to explore parents’ own racial learning and how it relates to the implicit and explicit messages they send their children. Based on an ethnographic study of Black parents’ experiences and educational engagement in a predominantly white Midwestern suburb, this article uses a racial learning framework to examine how Black parents’ own racialized, place-based experiences relate to the lessons they attempt to teach their children about race and racism. The research reveals that parents’ racial socialization practices were influenced by their own racial learning and experiences in the predominantly white suburban context, their children’s experiences in the local schools, and for some parents, the things they learned with and from other Black families in school and community organizational spaces. The research findings illustrate the importance of understanding Black parents’ own place-based racial learning and how it shapes and informs their efforts to support their children’s wellbeing and academic success, particularly in predominantly white school districts and communities.

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“…Even among White parents who report a desire to engage with race and racism and to resist racist socialization, it is common for parents to use strategies that emphasize how people of color have racialized experiences rather than naming their own racialized experiences (Underhill, 2019), and it is also common for parents to engage in practices intended to enrich their own children's lives (e.g., attending performances, festivals, or celebrations that center people of color) without also engaging in practices intended to disrupt White supremacy (e.g., sending their own children to urban public schools where the majority of students are people of color; Matlock & Diangelo, 2015;Underhill, 2019). Some White parents do emphasize issues of equity and justice in their racial socialization goals (Gillen-O'Neel et al, 2022) and some make actively anti-racist decisions, purposefully choosing to live in racially diverse communities, send their children to racially diverse schools, educate their children about race and racism, and engage with their children in anti-racist action (Hagerman, 2018). These parents confront their own set of challenges, including contending with the ways in which their children's peers and other influences support or counteract their own intentions as well as the ways in which the racist structure of society raises barriers to their best intentions (Hagerman, 2018;Smalls Glover et al, 2022).…”

Section: Critical Whiteness and White Racial Socializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining feasibility, acceptability, and participant experiences of an anti-racist parenting intervention for White U.S. parents.

Heberle,

Hoch,

Wagner

et al. 2024

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

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Many White parents engage in minimal discussion of race and racism with their children, instead engaging in color-evasive practices that communicate that race is unimportant and that White people are racially neutral. Even White parents who express a commitment to anti-racist parenting frequently struggle to act on this commitment and feel underprepared to do so. The current mixed methods pilot study focused on the feasibility, acceptability, and participant experiences of an intervention (“CounterACT”) that aimed to address this gap in White U.S.-based parents’ skills and knowledge. Participants in the study were 27 White U.S.-based parents of 4- to 6-year-old White children who completed pre- and postintervention surveys as well as postintervention interviews. Findings suggest that the CounterACT model was feasible and acceptable. Parent self-report further suggests that CounterACT had beneficial effects on parenting, parents’ beliefs regarding White privilege, and children’s critical reflection. Parents reported positive experiences of CounterACT, particularly group components of the intervention. Key elements of participants’ experience included learning to understand their own and their children’s experience of Whiteness; learning to better tolerate and regulate emotional discomfort; connecting with others for motivation, accountability, and learning; and approaching racial socialization with greater intentionality. However, parents also experienced limits in their progress toward anti-racist parenting. Many indicated a desire for more concrete guidance and greater support enacting what they were learning in their own parenting. A particular concern was how to discuss White racial identities effectively. Our discussion highlights the implications of these findings for future work in this area.

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White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America

Cited by 23 publications

References 0 publications

Whiteness in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Who is Talking About Racism With Their Kids?

Whiteness in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Who is Talking About Racism With Their Kids?

Race Lessons: The Role of Place in Shaping Black Parents’ Racial Learning and Educational Engagement in a Predominantly White Suburb

Examining feasibility, acceptability, and participant experiences of an anti-racist parenting intervention for White U.S. parents.

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