Racial Socialization and Racial Discrimination as Intra‐ and Intergroup Processes

This chapter focuses on two important mechanisms through which racial learning occurs: children's experiences of discrimination across multiple settings and messages that children receive from parents, termed racial socialization. Notably, these two mechanisms are dynamically interdependent and deeply intertwined. Youth's discrimination experiences reflect both objective and potentially verifiable racial dynamics as well as their pre-existing expectations about, or predispositions toward, intergroup relations, the latter being partly shaped by parents' racial socialization. Parents’ racial socialization likewise emanates from, and is embedded in, systems of racial stratification and as well as in their anticipation of, or reaction to, youth's experience with these systems, including their own children's experiences of discrimination. Discrimination disrupts the process of achieving positive, respectful, and caring relationships with others. Thus, it has been associated empirically with a range of social adjustment indicators, including the quality of relationships with peers, adults, and the school community.