White, Affluent Fathers on Raising White Children

• In Event: 452 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 16. Racial Identity II

Abstract

This study explores the role that white, affluent fathers play in the process of white familial racial socialization. Previous research suggests that white parents do not always recognize that they “have” race. As such, this study considers both the explicit and implicit racialized messages white parents convey to their children. This paper specifically examines the relationship between fathers’ understandings of contemporary racism and their parenting practices. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews gathered from eight affluent, white fathers, this paper illustrates how these men think about what it means to raise a white child in America, how this process of teaching kids about race works, what it means to raise a “good” white child, and why they make the particular everyday choices tied to racial socialization that they do. Findings from this paper further theoretical understandings of white racial socialization processes in affluent families.

Author

• Margaret A Hagerman, Mississippi State University