Teaching African American Children about Race: Fostering Intergroup Relationships through Parental Racial Socialization

Abstract

In the United States, highly publicized sociopolitical topics such as police-related shootings of African American men and adolescents and societal responses to them such as the Black Lives Matter Movement have drawn attention to how and what children, particularly African American children, are learning about race and intergroup relationships. This commentary highlights how African American parents teach children about their race and how to go about interacting with members of other racial groups by drawing attention to the complexities of parental racial socialization. Points to consider about how African American parents transmit racialized messages to their children are discussed for scholars to take into account when examining how racial socialization influences parenting and child behavior.