Barriers and Bridges to Positive Cross-Ethnic Relations

Abstract

African American and White parents who expressed interest in their youth's cross-ethnic peer relations discussed barriers that contributed to cross-ethnic avoidance and their efforts to bridge those barriers in their youth. African American parents routinely used discussion, efforts to create positive contact situations, modeling, and explicit statements in response to their perception that cross-ethnic relations were stymied by discrimination and a lack of grounding in African American culture. White parents relied primarily on the school and inaction to overcome barriers of an ethnically homogeneous social context, socioeconomic status differences, and a lack of understanding of African American culture. Parents' socialization efforts appeared to occur in response to parents' position as members of cultural and numerical majority versus minority groups and were further responsive to formal and informal practices of the school and peer group influences.