Is Racial Prejudice Declining from Grandparents to Grandkids?

31% of children in a 2018 study tied traits to race.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The 21st century has brought many changes. People have taken on new technology that speeds up their lives, opened up discussions about topics that used to be off-limits, and faced the ongoing impact of racism that still affects our society.

We’re at a unique point in history, and it makes us wonder: are children today more aware of race? Have the ways we talk about race changed since the 1950s and 60s, when their grandparents grew up with segregation, the Black Power Movement, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for equality? With social media now so common, the Black Lives Matter movement in the spotlight, and young people taking action, have we seen racism fade among white children — or is it still more complicated than that?

How do white kids understand race?

Margaret Hagerman, sociologist and author of the book White Kids, Growing up with privilege in a racially divided America, spent two years interviewing white children and their families to understand how they learn about race. Conversations about race are not just for children of color, she believes, and this study helped her prove exactly why that is the case. Understanding the ‘racial context’ of…