Catching Racial Bias in a Color-Blind World: White Youth Reason With Race

• In Event: Across the Spectrum: The Implications of Racial Socialization for Diverse Children and Youth

Abstract

Racial socialization describes the implicit and explicit messages by which youth acquire concepts of race and racism. Few studies address White racial socialization, as the field has assumed that it doesn’t occur, or occurs less often, than for youth of color. This study examines the racial messages that White families intend to convey to their children in grades 6-12 as well as the racial messages received by White youth from families and schools. Our presentation will focus on the ways in which White youth invoke racial stereotypes to explain their reality, in spite of a colorblind racial socialization process at home.

Racial socialization is broadly defined as, “the transmission from adults to children of information regarding race and ethnicity” (Hughes, Rodriguez, Smith, Johnson, Stevenson, & Spicer, 2006, p. 748). Racial socialization for White youth is the process by which White people learn what it means to be White in a society that values Whiteness. It differs markedly from the racial socialization of People of Color because Whites tend to benefit materially from systems of racism (McIntosh, 1997; Perry, 2001; Lewis, 2004). What White youth learn about race has significant implications for their participation in a multi-racial society.

The study was primarily qualitative in nature, and it incorporated three quantitative assessment tools: a demographic questionnaire, a stress check-in measure, and a diversity of environment form. We interviewed working, middle and upper middle class families who self identified racially as “White” from a large east coast metropolitan area; most lived in the surrounding suburbs. Thirteen White families participated in the study: 13 adolescents (grades 6-12) and 23 adults, yielding 36 interviews. The interviews consisted of structured interviews with the youth and the parents separately, and finally one group interview with the youth and parents together. This research was particularly unique in the field of racial socialization because we interviewed youth and parents from the same family, thus directly connecting intent to socialize with the results of that socialization. All interviews were videotaped and audiotaped.

The White parents in our study overwhelmingly claimed to be teaching their children to be “colorblind” to matters of race, and their children, for the most part, demonstrated that “colorblindness” was the message they received. And yet the youth also professed subtle beliefs about differences between racial groups. Though the study focused on racial difference broadly, we found that the White teens tended to express negative beliefs about Black Americans in particular. This research has implications for policies that shape both school curriculum development and teacher training on race as it exposes the processes by which racial stereotypes are taught and reinforced, often in subtle or unintentional ways. Knowing the social context in which White students’ ideas about race develop can inform both policy and practice for building healthy multiracial school communities.

Authors

• Ali Michael, University of Pennsylvania Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education

• Keisha L. Bentley-Edwards, The University of Texas - Austin

• Eleanora Bartoli, Arcadia University