Learning to Talk About Race: The Educational Decisions and Racial Socialization Practices of White Parents

• In Event: 69.057 - Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: 69.057-8 - Race Talk at Home, at School, and in Communities

Abstract

This paper examines the role of collective learning experiences that encourage parents to proactively discuss race, racism, and discrimination with their children in shaping the ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) practices of white parents in a mid-sized, Midwestern city with vast racial disparities. Semi-structured interviews with 14 white parents, participant-observation, and document analysis revealed that an awareness of local and national racial inequality and participation in collective racial learning experiences led white parents to avoid using silent or egalitarian ERS practices and messages. Structural and individual barriers, however, prevented some parents from engaging in critical, color-conscious ERS with their children. Nevertheless, many parents still gained advantage for their children through their educational decision-making. Implications for schools are also discussed.

Author

• James Porter Gleckner, University of Wisconsin - Madison