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SEVEN MYTHS OF RACE AND THE YOUNG CHILD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2012

Lawrence A. Hirschfeld
Lawrence A. Hirschfeld*
Affiliation:
Departments of Anthropology and Psychology, New School for Social Research
*
Professor Lawrence A. Hirschfeld, Departments of Anthropology and Psychology, New School for Social Research, 6 East 16thStreet, New York, NY 10003. E-mail: hirschfl@newschool.edu
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Abstract

Racism reproduces through children. Racial bias is acquired early, and like many early-acquired predilections it is tenaciously resistant to counterevidence. Much of the institutional struggle against racism focuses on children, working to change their attitudes and judgments by addressing what children supposedly have come to know and believe about race. Yet much of what lay folk and educators alike imagine about children's knowledge of race and how they have come to acquire it is inaccurate. This essay is concerned to identify these inaccuracies, present evidence that challenges them, and briefly consider why they—like racialist thinking itself—are so tenaciously held and resistant to counterevidence.

Keywords

Racial AwarenessRacial PrejudiceChildrenParentsConventional Wisdom
Type
State of the Discipline
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , Spring 2012 , pp. 17 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2012

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