“A careful, painful, and convincing argument that when white people give their children advantages, they are often disadvantaging others. Racism is so hard to overturn, in part because white people prop it up when they work to make sure their children succeed.” NBC News
Description
Riveting stories of how affluent, white children learn about race
American kids are living in a world of ongoing public debates about race, daily displays of racial injustice, and for some, an increased awareness surrounding diversity and inclusion. In this heated context, sociologist Margaret A. Hagerman zeroes in on affluent, white kids to observe how they make sense of privilege, unequal educational opportunities, and police violence. In fascinating detail, Hagerman considers the role that they and their families play in the reproduction of racism and racial inequality in America.
White Kids, based on two years of research involving in-depth interviews with white kids and their families, is a clear-eyed and sometimes shocking account of how white kids learn about race. In doing so, this book explores questions such as, “How do white kids learn about race when they grow up in families that do not talk openly about race or acknowledge its impact?” and “What about children growing up in families with parents who consider themselves to be ‘anti-racist’?”
Featuring the actual voices of young, affluent white kids and what they think about race, racism, inequality, and privilege, White Kids illuminates how white racial socialization is much more dynamic, complex, and varied than previously recognized. It is a process that stretches beyond white parents’ explicit conversations with their white children and includes not only the choices parents make about neighborhoods, schools, peer groups, extracurricular activities, and media, but also the choices made by the kids themselves. By interviewing kids who are growing up in different racial contexts—from racially segregated to meaningfully integrated and from politically progressive to conservative—this important book documents key differences in the outcomes of white racial socialization across families. And by observing families in their everyday lives, this book explores the extent to which white families, even those with anti-racist intentions, reproduce and reinforce the forms of inequality they say they reject.
Praise
“A careful, painful, and convincing argument that when white people give their children advantages, they are often disadvantaging others. Racism is so hard to overturn, in part because white people prop it up when they work to make sure their children succeed.” NBC News
“[A] must-read. Hagerman unearths the segregation, income inequality, and racial biases which run rampant in her subjects’ lives…stripping down the coded language of suburbia until it reveals the ugly truth underneath.” Foreword Reviews (starred review)
“Hagerman spent two years immersed with thirty privileged white Midwestern families to produce this timely…study. She provides revealing portraits….[and] is especially good on the ‘conundrum of privilege’….A complex and nuanced…book.” Kirkus Reviews
“This immersive study will transform the way we think about racial socialization among the privileged. White Kids is a must read for anyone interested in how racial attitudes in America take shape in their earliest moments.” Monica McDermott, author of Working-Class White
Details
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Release Day | Jan 14, 2019 |
| Release Date | January 15, 2019 |
| Release Date Machine | 1547510400 |
| Imprint | Blackstone Publishing |
| Provider | Blackstone Publishing |
| Categories | Politics & Social Sciences, Social Sciences, Nonfiction - Adult, Nonfiction - All |
Author Bio
Margaret A. Hagerman is Associate Professor of Sociology and Faculty Affiliate in African American Studies and Gender Studies at Mississippi State University. She is the author of White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America which won the William J. Goode Book Award given by the American Sociological Association’s Section on Family.
Narrator Bio
Tavia Gilbert is an acclaimed narrator of more than four hundred full-cast and multivoice audiobooks for virtually every publisher in the industry. Named the 2018 Voice of Choice by Booklist magazine, she is also winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She has earned numerous Earphones Awards, a Voice Arts Award, and a Listen-Up Award. Audible.com has named her a Genre-Defining Narrator: Master of Memoir. In addition to voice acting, she is an accomplished producer, singer, and theater actor. She is also a producer, singer, photographer, and a writer, as well as the cofounder of a feminist publishing company, Animal Mineral.
Overview
Riveting stories of how affluent, white children learn about race
American kids are living in a world of ongoing public debates about race, daily displays of racial injustice, and for some, an increased awareness surrounding diversity and inclusion. In this heated context, sociologist Margaret A. Hagerman zeroes in on affluent, white kids to observe how they make sense of privilege, unequal educational opportunities, and police violence. In fascinating detail, Hagerman considers the role that they and their families play in the reproduction of racism and racial inequality in America.
White Kids, based on two years of research involving in-depth interviews with white kids and their families, is a clear-eyed and sometimes shocking account of how white kids learn about race. In doing so, this book explores questions such as, “How do white kids learn about race when they grow up in families that do not talk openly about race or acknowledge its impact?” and “What about children growing up in families with parents who consider themselves to be ‘anti-racist’?”
Featuring the actual voices of young, affluent white kids and what they think about race, racism, inequality, and privilege, White Kids illuminates how white racial socialization is much more dynamic, complex, and varied than previously recognized. It is a process that stretches beyond white parents’ explicit conversations with their white children and includes not only the choices parents make about neighborhoods, schools, peer groups, extracurricular activities, and media, but also the choices made by the kids themselves. By interviewing kids who are growing up in different racial contexts—from racially segregated to meaningfully integrated and from politically progressive to conservative—this important book documents key differences in the outcomes of white racial socialization across families. And by observing families in their everyday lives, this book explores the extent to which white families, even those with anti-racist intentions, reproduce and reinforce the forms of inequality they say they reject.
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