When we asked parents why they were not discussing racism with their children, they cited reasons like wanting to shield their child from the reality of racism or a belief that racism was irrelevant to their child’s life. 4/N
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Some may think White parent's conversations with their children about racism increased after the murder of George Floyd, but in our 2022 JRA paper, we found that that was not the case. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jora.12767
Although White parents reported discussing racism more, when we looked at the data, we found a lot of “empty” messages. This suggests that parents were saying they were discussing for self-presentation purposes but not actually doing the work.
With our newly published study, we brought families into the lab with 3 goals: (1) we wanted to get White parents and their children to talk about racism in a “color conscious” (CC) way. By that, I mean we wanted them to point out prejudice and acknowledge the reality of racism.
We know that White children are more likely to engage in subtly biased behaviors relative to more blatant behaviors with their Black peers, and these daily microaggressions are insidious. 11/N
We also know that White people are less likely to acknowledge that subtle (vs blatant) bias is a real form of racial bias. Thus, we wanted to explore whether the influence of socialization on bias change looked different when families were discussing subtle (vs blatant) racism. 12/N
To test these questions, we developed a method to facilitate these conversations. Parents and children watched animated videos and discussed questions about the behaviors that they observed (see a screenshot example below). 13/N
Moreover, we took a novel approach, looking at socialization through a bidirectional lens. Do parents influence kids, but also, do kids influence parents?! (OMG, I'm terrible at BlueSky...what number is this/N)
(3) We examined whether the relation between socialization and bias varied based on the type of racial bias parents and children were discussing: subtle or blatant bias. 10?/N
(2) We examined if parents' and children’s socialization messages during the conversation would influence each other’s pro-White implicit bias change. Although many have speculated that these color conscious conversations might reduce biases in children, we wanted to test that.
Moreover, we took a novel approach, looking at socialization through a bidirectional lens. Do parents influence kids, but also, do kids influence parents?!
Their White children were between the ages of 8 and 12, a period in which a majority of Black children report having experienced racism. These excuses are unacceptable (and we discuss this in our 2022 Current Opinion paper). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22001415 5/N
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22001415 5/N