Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: What, and how, do middle-class White parents teach their children about race, and being White in America?Though Whites are the majority racial group in the United States, very little is known about how they racially socialize their children.Drawing upon observational research and interviews with 40 parents, I examine the explicit and implicit racial socialization practices of middle-class White parents in two Cincinnati, Ohio neighborhoods.I argue participants adopt "happy" racial socialization practices that promote positive racial narratives and interactions whilst simultaneously minimizing conversations and interactions that challenge or threaten their family's race and class-based privileges.In terms of explicit racial socialization, this means parents do speak with their children about race but they ignore or downplay racial discussions that concern issues of racial inequality, racial tension, and racial protest.A similar pattern of behavior is evidenced in parents' implicit racial socialization practices, or what I term their "exposure to diversity" efforts.Participants all claim to value racial diversity and actively pursue opportunities for their children to be in the presence of people of color.They envision their "exposure to diversity" efforts as a means to foster small-scale social change and to achieve racial and class distinction for their child.However, a study of participants' parenting practices reveals that parents are not enthusiastic about all racial diversity.They embrace middle-class, people of color but are decidedly ambivalent about contact with the poor; they fear that too much contact will diminish their children's middle-class presentation of self.Taken together, study results provide insight as to the role middle-class White parents play in the cultivation of a White identity.iii
Author: Megan R. Underhill
Institution: University of Cincinnati
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2601456693