Middle Class Black Parents and Reflective Resistance

• In Event: 1284 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 09. Race/Ethnicity and Parental Socialization

Abstract

Racial socialization has been shown to vary on a number of dimensions, with apparent implications for its impact on the youth who are the recipients. One important variable is the type of racial socialization practiced: a widely-accepted typology developed by Hughes et al (2006) identifies four versions: cultural socialization, preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust and egalitarianism (Bowman and Howard 1985; Hughes and Chen 1997; Caughy et al 2002; Constantine and Blackmon 2002; McHale et al 2006; Tang et al 2016; Thornhill 2016). An alternative typology draws a distinction between a critical approach, which promotes an understanding of the ongoing significance of racism in the present, and a colorblind version, which does the opposite (Thornhill 2011; 2016). Strategies of resistance among adolescents have been found to be related to the experience of critical racial socialization. However, I argue that there is another dimension that is relevant to the practice of racial socialization: some African American parents practice a form that is more reflective than that of some of their co-ethnics. Some parents plan carefully for how to protect and train their children, particularly in the adolescent years. Others are less focused on how racism affects their children, but employ practices that are common in the community in a fairly automatic fashion, providing little racial socialization after childhood. I also argue that how reflective parents are is related to how elaborate their strategies of resistance to protect their offspring are.

Author

• Jacqueline Cooke Rivers, Harvard University