Why Most White Parents Don’t Talk About Racism With Their Kids
As long as it doesn’t affect them, there is no need for “the talk”?
Racism is like a sickness that gets passed down through generations, which is why it’s so important to talk to your kids about it. But many white parents still avoid having these tough conversations.
Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman talked about this in their book ‘Nurture Shock.’ In 2007, they did a study in the Journal of Marriage and Family that found that out of 17,000 families with kindergartners, 75% of white parents never, or almost never talk about race. The same study noted that non-white parents are about three times as likely to discuss race than white parents.
After George Floyd’s tragic death sparked nationwide protests, Stanford researchers noticed that one major group was missing from the limelight and that was the white parents.
In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Stanford researchers found that Floyd’s death caused the black parents to speak more with their children about race and racism, but the white parents were mostly unchanged or were less likely to engage their kids in meaningful conversation about these topics.
