White Kids: Growing Up With Privilege in a Racially Divided America

• In Event: The Next Steps for an Antiracist Research Agenda in Developmental Science

Abstract

Children growing up in the United States are living in a world with ongoing debates about race, daily displays of racial violence, and for some, an increased awareness surrounding inequality. Margaret Hagerman presents research on how white kids learn about race, racism, inequality, and privilege in the contexts of their families and everyday lives. She explores how white racial learning processes stretch beyond white parents’ explicit conversations with their children and includes not only the choices parents make about neighborhoods, schools, peers, activities, and media, but also the choices made by kids themselves. Featuring the voices of young, affluent white kids, she explores how white racial socialization is much more dynamic, complex, and varied than previously recognized—and what this means for how researchers ought to approach the critical study of whiteness and racism in the future.

Author

• Margaret Hagerman, Mississippi State University
  Presenting Author