Event Details

Cari Gillen-O’Neel, Psychology, will present ”Raising White Kids: How to Talk about Race with Kids Who Are Growing Up with Privilege."  For children to thrive in our increasingly diverse society, they must be prepared to engage with issues of race and racism. One of the best places for children to learn about race is from their parents, yet White parents in particular, tend to avoid the topic of race. These parents often report egalitarian racial attitudes and want their children to be racially egalitarian as well. Indeed, one reason why many White parents avoid racial discussions is because they believe that their children are “colorblind” and that discussing race will actually cause their children to become racially biased. In general, however, White children do not report colorblind or racially egalitarian attitudes. In fact, by the time that they are six, most White children demonstrate pro-White bias. Furthermore, even when parents hold egalitarian racial attitudes, when these parents avoid discussing race with their children, the children tend to demonstrate pro-White bias. In this talk, I’ll share some developmental research about how racial bias develops and some preliminary results from a recent study of White families’ racial conversations.