Correlates in Children's Experiences of Parents' Racial Socialization Behaviors

This study examined racial socialization processes among 94 African American parents of third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐grade children as they were predicted by children's ethnic identity exploration and unfair treatment as well as by parents' ethnic identity and discrimination experiences. Findings indicated that children's ethnic identity exploration and parents' perceptions that their children had been treated unfairly by an adult because of their race were both significantly associated with the frequency of messages to children regarding discrimination (Preparation for Bias). Parents' perceptions of children's unfair treatment from an adult and children's perceptions that they had been treated unfairly by peers were significantly associated with parents' cautions and warnings to children about intergroup relations (Promotion of Mistrust). Moreover, the influence of parents' perceptions on Promotion of Mistrust were especially pronounced when children also reported unfair treatment from adults. Children's identity exploration and unfair treatment were not associated with parents' emphasis on ethnic pride, heritage, and diversity (Cultural Socialization/Pluralism). Thus, findings suggest that parental factors are most central in the racial socialization messages that children receive. However, children's perceptions of discrimination and information seeking regarding their own history appear to have some influence on parental messages about race.     

Silver Inflation and the Senate in 1933

Along with the ever-increasing racial/ethnic diversity in U.S. schools, researchers began to investigate the impact of racial/ethnic identity on young people's understanding of the nation's history. Compared to other racial minorities, Asian American students have received little academic and educational attention. This article seeks to address this gap through a qualitative study on Korean American youth. Drawing from in-depth interviews with twenty Korean American high school students, this article examines how Korean American youth make sense of U.S. history and how their sociocultural backgrounds affect their historical perspectives as well as their ideas and experiences of learning history historical perspectives.     

A Preliminary Analysis of Associations Among Ethnic–Racial Socialization,Ethnic Discrimination,and Ethnic Identity Among Urban Sixth Graders

Drawing from cultural ecological models of adolescent development, the present research investigates how early adolescents received ethnic–racial socialization from parents as well as how experiences of ethnic and racial discrimination are associated with their ethnic identity (i.e., centrality, private regard, and public regard). Data for this study were drawn from a multimethod study of ethnically and socioeconomically diverse early adolescents in three mid‐ to high‐achieving schools in New York City. After accounting for the influences of race/ethnicity, social class, gender, immigrant status, and self‐esteem, parental ethnic–racial socialization was associated with higher levels of ethnic centrality (i.e., the extent to which youth identify themselves in terms of their group), more positive private regard (i.e., feelings about one's own ethnic group), and public regard (i.e., perceptions of other people's perceptions of their ethnic group). Ethnic discrimination from adults at school and from peers was associated with more negative perceptions of one's ethnic group (i.e., public regard). In addition, the association of ethnic–racial parent socialization and ethnic identity beliefs was stronger for those who reported higher levels of adult discrimination. Results highlight key ways in which ethnic identity may be shaped by the social ecologies in which adolescents are embedded.     

Race‐Ethnic Differences in Nonmarital Fertility: A Focus on Mexican American Women

We use the National Survey of Family Growth to identify race‐ethnic differences in nonmarital fertility, paying particular attention to Mexican American women. On the basis of a sample of 9,054 White, Black, and Mexican American women, we use event history methods to explore the role of family background, a woman’s own employment and school enrollment, and cohabitation on nonmarital fertility. We additionally determine whether these relationships vary by socioeconomic background. The above factors are all significantly related to the risk of a nonmarital birth and reduce Mexican American–White differentials. Interestingly, higher fertility within cohabiting unions among Mexican American women, despite lower levels of cohabitation, contributes to their higher nonmarital fertility relative to White women.     

“I was discriminated against because I was seen as PRC-Chinese”: The negotiation between ethnicity and nationalism among Taiwanese migrants in Australia

Research on race and ethnicity has focused on conditions under which solidarity will be developed to consolidate collective benefits. For example, facing racial discrimination can bring large-scale affiliations (e.g., people of color, Latinos, or Asians) to fight against racial injustice. Focusing on the negotiation and struggle between ethnicity and nationalism among Taiwanese migrants in Australia—a politicizing context associated with a prior definition of Chinese category, despite inherent differences within it, this article shows the complexity of ethnicity when ethnic identity/solidarity intersects with nationalism and racial discrimination. I argue that Taiwanese migrants attach specific meanings to the ethnic (Chinese) category and constantly connect to and shift its boundaries in different contexts. Meanwhile, they also make a distinction between racial discrimination from white Australians and political hostility from PRC-Chinese. This article proposes a procedural and contextual understanding of ethnic identity, solidarity, nationalism, and boundary making/unmaking within the Chinese category as it is enacted in Taiwanese migrants' everyday lives. It also examines situational variability in the salience of ethnic identifications, racialization of the ethnic category, and people's interpretation of ethnic and national identity when facing racial discrimination.     

Can the American Dream Survive the New Multiethnic America? Evidence from Los Angeles1

Drawing from a survey conducted in Los Angeles, we examine perceptions of achievement and optimism about reaching the American dream among racial, ethnic, and nativity groups. We find blacks and Asian Americans less likely than whites to believe they have reached the American dream. Latinos stand out for their upbeat assessments, with naturalized citizens possessing a stronger sense of achievement and noncitizens generally optimistic that they will eventually fulfill the American dream. We discuss patterns of variation between the racial and ethnic groups as well as variation within each group. Notwithstanding interesting differences along lines of race, ethnicity, and nativity, we find no evidence that the nation’s changing ethnic stew has diluted faith in the American dream.     

Discrimination Hurts: The Academic,Psychological, and Physical Well‐Being of Adolescents

Little is known about the frequency of ethnic or racial discrimination and its implications for Latin American and Asian youths' development. In this study, we examined if there were ethnic and generation differences among 601 12th graders from Latin American (36%), Asian (43%), and European (19%) backgrounds in the frequency of peer, adult, and daily discrimination, and whether discrimination predicted their well‐being. Adolescents from Latin American and Asian backgrounds reported more adult and peer discrimination than their peers from European backgrounds. Latin American youth reported more adult discrimination than their Asian peers. Discrimination predicted lower grade point averages and self‐esteem, and more depressive symptoms, distress, and physical complaints. Ethnic identity, ethnic socialization, and race rejection sensitivity did not moderate the associations between discrimination and well‐being.     

Examining Discrimination,Ethnic‐Racial Identity Status,and Youth Public Regard Among Black,Latino, and White Adolescents

How positively adolescents believe others feel about their ethnic‐racial group (i.e., public regard) is an important part of their ethnic‐racial identity (ERI), which is likely informed by contextual and individual factors. Using cluster analyses to generate ERI statuses among Black, Latino, and White adolescents (n = 1,378), we found that associations between peer versus adult discrimination and public regard varied across ERI status and ethnic‐racial group. However, among all adolescents, an achieved ERI (i.e., having explored ethnicity‐race and having a clear sense about its personal meaning) buffered the negative association between adult discrimination and public regard, but not between peer discrimination and public regard. Implications for understanding the interplay between contextual and individual factors for public regard are discussed.     

“Gay Equals White”? Racial,Ethnic, and Sexual Identities and Attitudes Toward LGBT Individuals Among College Students at a Bible Belt University

While past research has certainly explored a variety of correlates of attitudes toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, the current study is among the first in an emerging line of inquiry that examines attitudes toward each of these groups separately utilizing an intersectional framework with special attention to racial, ethnic, and sexual identities. Using a college sample of students from the Bible Belt of the United States (N = 1,940), I investigated the roles of racial and ethnic identities (Caucasian/White, African American/Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American/Alaskan Native, other race, and Hispanic/Latinx), religiosity, patriarchal gender norms, parental perspectives, and the intersections among these identities and experiences as they relate to attitudes toward LGBT individuals among heterosexual (n = 1,551) and LGB respondents (n = 389). This moves beyond explorations of White heterosexual people’s attitudes about “homosexuals” (i.e., away from a focus only on gayness and Whiteness) and expands to include non-White LGB people’s LGBT attitudes. Overall, results indicate that racial, ethnic, and sexual identities play a significant role in southern college students’ LGBT attitudes, and these patterns are further complicated by interacting cultural experiences with religiosity, patriarchy, and family dynamics. Campus policy and program implications are provided.     

Diversity in Pathways to Parenthood: Patterns,Implications, and Emerging Research Directions

This review examines and synthesizes recent research on pathways to parenthood. We begin by providing basic information about patterns, differentials, and trends and discussing adoption and new reproductive technologies. We next turn to several areas of inquiry that became particularly prominent in the last decade: the continued “decoupling” of marriage and childbearing, the parental relationship context of nonmarital childbearing, family structure stability, multiplepartner fertility, and racial and ethnic variation in childbearing patterns. We then consider the implications of this body of scholarship and identify avenues for future research. Throughout, we highlight racial/ethnic and social class variation in childbearing patterns.     

(Re)Conceptualizating Race/Ethnic Relationships in US Schools: Toward a Multifaceted and Multilevel Framework

Since the Civil Rights Movements, the emphasis on confronting power, inequality, and racism in US schools has receded. So too has the movement to reverse racial/ethnic segregation and enhance student interactions. Instead, much popular and academic discourse focuses on standardized tests and achievement gaps, leaving the social aspects of schooling and race/ethnic interactions under-explored and largely ignored. Meanwhile, racial/ethnic tensions, hierarchies, inequalities, and the patterns, institutions, and systems that maintain them persist. During a period of growth in the percentages of Latina/o and Asian American/Pacific Islander students, this article argues for the importance of theorizing, researching, and reconceptualizing race/ethnic interactions in schools. Key to this process is adopting a multifaceted and multilevel approach. This involves moving beyond dichotomous thinking and instead adopting a framework that explores (1) the strengths of quantitative and qualitative research; (2) cross- and intra-racial/ethnic relations; (3) the significance of race/ethnicity, class, and gender; (4) a conflict-solidarity continuum of relationships; and (5) the salience of macro-, meso-, and micro-dynamics on school interactions. The adoption of this approach allows for a more complex, nuanced, and contemporary analysis of the phenomena occurring in today’s schools, thereby facilitating the possibility for change.     

Learning Racial Literacy While Navigating White Social Studies

Abstract

How do children develop racial literacy? How do they make sense of and respond to the master narratives of race and racism? What role does elementary social studies education play in children’s racial literacy development? I explored these questions as a parent–researcher, inquiring how my child, an Asian American elementary student, develops racial literacy as she learns U.S. history at school. In the following, I first situate my inquiry within the literature on social studies education from a critical race perspective. Next, I delineate my positionality as a critical race motherscholar and the rationale for studying my own child. Last, I present the findings from my inquiry and discuss its implications for elementary social studies education.     

The Importance of Racial Socialization: School‐Based Racial Discrimination and Racial Identity Among African American Adolescent Boys and Girls

This study examined various parental racial socialization messages as mediators between school‐based racial discrimination and racial identity formation over 4 years for African American boys (N = 639) and African American girls (N = 711). Findings indicated that school‐based racial discrimination was associated with racial identity beliefs. For African American boys, behavioral racial socialization messages mediated the relation between school‐based racial discrimination and racial centrality over time. Mediation also resulted for African American girls, but for a different set of race‐related messages (negative messages and racial barriers) and racial identity beliefs. The developmental significance of the findings and implications for future research are discussed.     

A mexican American woman encounters sociology: An autobiographical perspective

I attempt to show how my ideas about bureaucracy and Mexican American culture are a product of my life history and how I worked out key features of these ideas in teaching sociology at a small university. This was made possible because strategic sponsors helped me as an “outsider” to become a kind of “insider” within that social milieu. Her fields of interest are bureaucracy, family, social psychology and race and ethnic relations. She is currently writing a monograph on Mexican American family life.     

Coping with perceived discrimination: does ethnic identity protect mental health?

Using data (N = 2,109) from a large-scale epidemiological study of Filipino Americans, this study examines whether ethnic identity is linked to mental health and reduces the stress of discrimination. The strength of identification with an ethnic group is found to be directly associated with fewer depressive symptoms. In other words, having a sense of ethnic pride, involvement in ethinic practices, and cultural commitment to one's racial/ethnic group may protect mental health. Self-reports of racial/ethnic discrimination over a lifetime and everyday discrimination in the past month not due to race/ethnicity are associated with increased levels of depressive symptoms. Yet ethnic identity buffers the stress of racial/ethnic discrimination. This suggests that ethnic identity is a coping resource for racial/ethnic minorities that should not be overlooked. The strong link between ethnic identity and better mental health has implications for social-psychological theories on race/ethnicity and assimilation in the United States.     

The Role of Perceived Racial Discrimination in the Marriage Gap Between Black and White People

Abstract

Many explanations offered for the gap in marriage rates between Black and White people are economic and cultural. Less often considered are how racial social psychological factors influence marriage rates. In this study, we use critical race theory and the life course perspective to investigate how perceived racial discrimination impacts the likelihood of marriage for Black and White people. Data for the study are taken from the Portraits of American Life Study (N?=?678). The results of logistic regression analyses show that among people who report perceived racial discrimination, White people generally have a higher probability of being married compared to Black people. Analyses by age demonstrate that among younger adults, Black people who perceive racial discrimination are equally likely to be married as White people and have a higher probability of being married than Black people who do not report perceptions of racial discrimination. A negative influence on the odds of marriage related to perceived racial discrimination for Black people becomes clearer as respondents age. The findings highlight the importance of considering perceptions of racial discrimination to better understand the marriage gap between Black and White people across the life course.     

MEASURING SELF-PERCEIVED RACIAL AND ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION IN SOCIAL SURVEYS

The aim of this article is to encourage a research agenda that attends to methodological considerations regarding measuring self-perceived racial and ethnic discrimination in social surveys. Toward this end, the author compared validity of alternative measures of discrimination. The first measure asks whether something unfair or bad has happened because of race and ethnicity, whereas the second measure asks about generic unfair events independent of attribution to race or ethnicity. In a probability sample of 586 Black respondents living in the Detroit metropolitan area interviewed in 1995, it was found that the prevalence of self-perceived racial and ethnic discrimination depended on question framing. Moreover, different respondents were likely to respond affirmatively to explicit versus generic measures of discrimination; importantly, the mental health consequences of self-perceived racial and ethnic discrimination varied by question framing. The results confirmed that the prevalence, correlates, and psychological impact of self-perceived discrimination should be evaluated on the basis of measurement sensitivity.     

Intergenerational Experiences of Discrimination in Chinese American Families: Influences of Socialization and Stress

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the mechanisms by which Chinese American parents' experiences of discrimination influenced their adolescents' ethnicity‐related stressors (i.e., cultural misfit, discrimination, attitudes toward education). We focused on whether parents' ethnic‐racial socialization practices and perpetual foreigner stress moderated or mediated this relationship. Participants were 444 Chinese American families. Results indicated no evidence of moderation, but we observed support for mediation. Parental experiences of discrimination were associated with more ethnic‐racial socialization practices and greater parental perpetual foreigner stress. More ethnic‐racial socialization was related to greater cultural misfit in adolescents, whereas more perpetual foreigner stress was related to adolescents' poorer attitudes toward education and more reported discrimination. Relationships between mediators and outcomes were stronger for fathers than for mothers.     

The nightmares of the heteronormative

Abstract

Race and sexuality have always intersected in African‐American racial formation. In this article, I argue that this intersection has inspired certain epistemological, political, economic and cultural formations. In terms of epistemology, American sociology and African‐American literature have historically addressed the connections between race and sexuality. Both were interested in the ways that African‐American racial formation transgressed ideal heterosexual and patriarchal boundaries. As far as cultural formations were concerned, such transgressions materially and symbolically aligned African‐American racial formation with homosexuality. Attending to the political and economic effect of this alignment, I maintain that it helped to articulate African‐American racial difference and worked to exclude African‐Americans from the privileges of state and capital. Thus, the article argues that African‐American racial subordination can best be understood as it converges with heteronormative and patriarchal modes of regulation and exclusion. After showing how the most prominent sociology during the 1940s (Gunnar Myrdal's American Dilemma: The Negro and American Democracy) marked African‐Americans as pathologically heterosexual, I go on to read James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain to determine how the alignment between blackness and homosexuality suggests alternative and oppositional epistemological, cultural and political practices.