Book Review: White kids growing up with privilege in a racially divided America

In her book, White Kids Growing Up With Privilege in a Racially Divided America, Margaret Hagerman, a sociologist, explores the subtle and not so subtle ways in which privilege and racism are inextricably linked with the concomitant outcomes, generally negative for Black children and positive for White children. Frequently unintentionally––and sometimes intentionally––racism is fostered in neighborhoods, in and out of the schools, in all aspects of middle school children’s social experiences. Two overarching perspectives frame the book: first, that racism emerges from a learning process through which discriminatory values, judgments, and perspectives are transmitted to children, both overtly and covertly, and second, that White parents, even those supporting egalitarianism, value their own and their children’s privilege and its consequent wide-ranging access more than they decry the negative effects of aversive racism.

Hagerman identified a metropolitan city in Middle America with different school systems—private, public, religious—and selected three separate neighborhoods in that city. Choosing to live in each of the neighborhoods, Hagerman demonstrates, is influenced by local perceptions of race, each of which represents the local perceptions of race. Her research interest in the intersections of racial learning processes and privilege led her to include only upper middle-class families. She was embedded with 30 affluent White families in each of the neighborhoods over a 2-year period and conducted in-depth interviews with 36 children from the 30 families. Hagerman was able to observe multiple kinds of interactions, initiate informal discussions and more formal interviews with the identified parents and their children, and participate in relevant typically school- and neighborhood-based activities. She became a true participant-observer, for example, having meals with the identified families, driving their children to and from school and sports events, attending birthday parties, and so on.

The descriptions of Hagerman’s immersion reflect the value of such ethnographic methodologies. With Hagerman’s carefully detailed explanations and interpretations, the reader comes to understand the nuances of racial learning processes for middle school White children, from locking car doors in certain neighborhoods (translation: the people who live here are dangerous) to selecting one high school over another (translation: the pre-dominantly White school will provide a better education). She essentially reports on children’s interpretations of their experiences, for example, from a 12-year-old boy: teachers continue to present the “American dream” as though everyone can achieve it and do not want to talk about race and the social disadvantages of being Black, even in the context of social injustice. Hagerman notes that these children understand the meaning of race but consider the use of the term “racist” as more of a joking insult, as middle school children might select any words that would horrify adults.

Overall, Hagerman provides an interesting window into the details of experiences that seem to result in an unwanted emphasis on racial distinctions. Most of the parents, teachers, and even children who participated seem unaware of the strong and relatively frequent racial overtones in everyday conversations and in conversations related to major decisions (e.g., where should my child go to high school). This information could be useful in a variety of college courses, particularly those focused on the study of race or privilege. It also could serve as the basis for teacher training in elementary and secondary schools.

The manner of presentation, the formal and informal reporting of interviews, the lack of any quantitative data (though that may only be a problem for this reviewer), and the inclusion of Hagerman’s interpretations in descriptions of conversations or events may be less comfortable for psychologists more familiar with explicitly data-driven interpretations and conclusions. However, Hagerman does deliver what she proposes in the first chapter: an analysis of racial learning processes among affluent White middle school children.