James' World 2

Click the link below the picture

.

When my son was three years old, he told me one day after preschool that he didn’t want to play with me because I was Black. He went on; Black people are mean, he said, and he only wanted to play with his dad because my husband was white, like him.

We were shocked and I was hurt—my child thought I was bad because I was Black. And even though my son is biracial, he characterized himself as white.

What my son said that day unfortunately reinforced what research has long shown: children absorb racial biases from their environment. I study racial socialization—the ways children learn about race and racism—and I know how early these biases form. I also know that talking about race and racism can shape how children perceive others. Yet when white parents tell me their children say things like “Black people are not nice” or “I don’t want to play with Black kids,” they also tell me they ignore what their children said or simply tell their children it was mean. Without a real conversation about why their child might think that way or how to counter those ideas, children don’t unlearn bias; they just learn not to say it out loud.

In 2022, even though research on white parents discussing racism was still emerging, my colleagues and I argued that they needed to have these conversations with their children. At the time, we pointed to the subtle ways children can absorb racial biases—the diversity (or lack thereof) of their parents’ social circles, the characters they see on TV, and the differences they notice in social class.

But, in 2025, subtlety is a thing of the past. In attacking diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, the Trump administration is legitimizing and emboldening racism in ways that children—especially white children—undoubtedly notice. If my son, at three years old, could absorb anti-Black messages when overt racism was more widely condemned, imagine what white children today are internalizing in a climate where political leaders openly promote racism.

White parents who see themselves as egalitarian must recognize that the stakes are now higher than ever. If you want to raise children who reject racism rather than passively absorbing it, right now, today, talk with your child about race and racism.

By preschool, children start associating Black people with negative traits and white people with positive traits. These biases form as children pick up on patterns—who holds power, how groups are portrayed in media and how others interact with them. Even subtle nonverbal cues, like smiling at one group and frowning at another, influence children’s preferences. Not surprisingly, young children favor groups receiving positive signals and mimic those behaviors, reinforcing biases. These small cues accumulate, shaping how children perceive racial groups.

While most parents of color talk to their children early about race to prepare them for potential discrimination, white parents often avoid these discussions. In our research on parents of children in the age ranges of 8–12 and 13–17, less than 40 percent of white parents talked to their children about race, and many who did downplayed racism. This avoidance is concerning, given how racial attitudes develop. Without parental guidance, children interpret racial patterns on their own, often reinforcing societal biases.

.

.

.

Click the link below for the complete article:

.

__________________________________________