A Developmental Perspective on the Racial Socialization of White Children: Linguistic and Social-Cognitive Considerations

While there is growing consensus that it is important to talk about race and racism with children (a process called as racial socialization—particularly with White children—what to say when having these discussions is less clear. Here we argue that how parents have these discussions (in addition to what they say) is also important to consider, because children might interpret messages differently depending on specific linguistic features. Specifically, we highlight the potential role of abstraction, generics, and modals as three features of language both researchers and parents might consider when thinking of racial socialization. We also highlight developmental shifts in how different linguistic features might be interpreted. Finally, we suggest some future directions for racial socialization researchers.