Go Ask Mom
The Gendered Dynamics of Color-Conscious Racial Socialization among White Parents
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2244978 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Reilly Kincaid (0000-0002-8855-0001, Purdue University ,, corresponding author), Megan R Underhill (University of North Carolina at Asheville) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1355-1372 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-10 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Problems (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0037-7791 • E-ISSN: 1533-8533 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/socpro/spae020 |
| OpenAlex | W4403850072 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 31 |
While most white parents avoid discussing race and racism with their children or tell them to be color-blind, recent research suggests that a growing number of color-conscious white parents intentionally talk with their children about racism as an ongoing, systemic issue. However, this research gives little attention to parents' gender. Using interviews with 28 color-conscious white heterosexual parents, we examine how and why gender influences parents' race-related conversations with their children. We show that, in theory, mothers and fathers share similar beliefs about race/racism and the need to discuss it with their children. In practice, however, mothers overwhelmingly shoulder these conversations. We trace this paradox back to mothers' distinctively color-conscious refashioning of intensive mothering practices-which involves both personal and community-level work at the race-parenting intersection-that fathers do not undertake. This gender gap in parents' personal/community work around race influences contrasting approaches to race-related conversations with their children, with mothers being more proactive and fathers being more passive. This dynamic ultimately casts race as a 'Mom topic' within color-conscious white families. We argue that this can inhibit more egalitarian realizations of color-conscious white racial socialization and carries important implications for the sustainability and outcomes of these efforts
Developmental psychology · Race (biology) · Racism · Socialization · Sociology · White (mutation) · Women of color · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research · Social Psychology
The cultural contradictions of motherhood
The First R
Unequal Childhoods
In Blind Pursuit of Racial Equality?
Trends in Women’s and Men’s Time Use, 1965–2012
Distinction
White Parents’ Socialization of Racial Attitudes
Racism Without Racists
Racists without racism? From colourblind to entitlement racism online
Socialization of racial ideology by White parents
We Put It in Terms of Not-Nice”
Initial Evidence that Parent-Child Conversations About Race Reduce Racial Biases Among White U.S. Children
Black Lives, White Kids
An early-emerging explanatory heuristic promotes support for the status quo
Accounting for the Child in the Transmission of Party Identification
Relationships between Adult Children and Their Parents
Diversity Is Important to Me
Reproducing and Reworking Colorblind Racial Ideology
Theory Construction in Qualitative Research
Racial Socialization Practices Among White American Parents
Color Blind or Color Conscious? White American Mothers' Approaches to Racial Socialization
Flexible Coding of In-depth Interviews
White Racial Socialization
Critical Race Theories, Colorism, and the Decade's Research on Families of Color
Black Girls and the Talk? Policing, Parenting, and the Politics of Protection
Constructing Allyship and the Persistence of Inequality
Parenting during Ferguson
| Citations per year | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |