Black Mothers' Varied Responses to Their Children's Racist School Experiences

• In Event: 25.070 - No Choice Is the Right Choice: Understanding Black Parents' School "Choices" and Engagement

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore Black mothers’ beliefs about socializing their children to negotiate gendered and racial contexts, particularly school settings. Sixteen middle-income Black mothers in Northern California were individually interviewed about how they approached gendered racial socialization, including how they responded to their children’s racially discriminatory experiences in schools. Each interviewee reported at least one experience of racial discrimination affecting her child during schooling. The overlap in mothers’ stories highlights the pervasiveness of racial discrimination in school settings. The major types of teacher-related racialized experiences included: (1) low expectations and insinuations of inferiority, and (2) uncaring and unfair penalties. The major types of racialized experiences resulting from peer interactions included: (1) name calling and bullying, and (2) exclusion on sports teams. Mothers reported that boys experienced more racially salient experiences with teachers, whereas girls received more disparaging remarks from peers, including bullying about skin color and hair texture.

The present study contributes to the literature by highlighting the specific ways in which mothers responded to children’s school-based experiences of discrimination, including the messages they gave to children directly, the actions they took to advocate for their children’s fair treatment within the school system, and the decision to move their children to a new school when their advocacy efforts proved insufficient to protect their children’s psychological safety.

This study shows that children’s racist experiences in schools catalyzed mothers’ advocacy efforts, their messages to their children about coping with bias, and their consideration of least harmful school placement. A few mothers reported shifts in their perceptions of parent-teacher relationships due to their children’s racialized experiences. Whereas some mothers initially felt partnered with teachers and urged children to abide by teachers’ rules, mothers began mistrusting teachers when they realized that teachers did not support their children’s academic progress. Mothers’ advocacy efforts included holding parent-teacher conferences, meeting with administrators, and moving children to a different school. Whether to resolve children’s racist school-based experiences by moving to another school was based on mothers’ satisfaction with the school’s responsiveness to their concerns.

Research has shown that the types of discriminatory experiences that mothers and children encounter and what mothers say to children about these experiences has implications for children’s socio-emotional and academic outcomes (Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000; Hughes & Johnson, 2001; Neblett, Philip, Cogburn, & Sellers, 2006). The present study adds to this literature by highlighting the additional role of mothers’ advocacy efforts on children’s ability to overcome discriminatory school-based experiences. These findings have implications for the development of positive school climates and mutually beneficial family-school relationships that support Black students’ academic achievement and socio-emotional well being. Furthermore, this study provides insight into the kinds of racist school experiences that children experience, and how mothers attempt to intervene to protect their children, including what factors lead mothers to decide that the safest option for their children’s social-emotional health is to find another school.

Author

• Alea Rhys Holman, University of California - Berkeley