White Families' Communications About and Around Race: Conversations Between white Adolescents and Their Mothers

Though there is substantial research on racial socialization in families of color, there is less on such socialization in white families. To investigate racial socialization in white families, the current study analyzed mixed-methods data from 46 mother-adolescent dyads. Though white parents and their adolescent children largely claimed to not talk about race, they in fact communicated about and around race through various strategies that in effect, maintained white privilege and failed to challenge systems of racial oppression. Very few families in our sample discussed racial discrimination or white privilege, and fewer rooted both at the systems level. Our results highlight situations that prompt conversations about race as well as the ways white families talk about and around race and white privilege.