Socialization of Racial Ideology by White Parents

The ways that White American parents socialize their children to think about and interact with racial outgroups are not well understood. The goals of this study were to explore the degree to which White parents endorse contradictory racial ideologies, and the reasons behind the presence versus absence of parent-child discussions of race-related current events (e.g., Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, or the Charleston church shooting). We recruited a sample of White parents of children ages 8-12 on Amazon MechanicalTurk (N= 165, 66.1% female, M-age = 36.67) and applied a qualitative thematic analysis to their answers to open-ended probes regarding racial discussions with their children. Results revealed both colorblind and color conscious racial ideology communicated by White parents. Thirty-seven percent of White parents endorsed a mixture of colorblind and color conscious ideology. The majority of parents did not discuss race-related current events with their children; many believed these discussions were either too negative or unnecessary. The results indicate that White parents have the potential to be agents of change that socialize color conscious beliefs in their children, but many are reinforcing the current system of colorblind indifference to racial inequality.