In a study by Meyers, Williams, Pauker & Apfelbaum (2021), researchers found that colorblind norms are largely activated by the belief that talking about race is prejudiced. After exposing Asian participants to either a colorblind message that included the idea that talking about race was a form of prejudice, a colorblind message without an explicit link between talking about race and prejudice, and a control, they found that those who were presented with the idea that talking about race is a form of prejudice endorsed colorblind ideology to a greater extent than the other two groups. This shows that often, when people use colorblind ideologies, they are doing so because they truly believe that it is less racist to avoid the topic of race altogether.

We see an example of this here, where the interviewee describes her mother’s discomfort when she pointed out someone’s race as a child. Based on this finding, it seems likely that the mother was very uncomfortable with the interviewee labeling the person they saw as “brown,” because she believed that mentioning race was, in and of itself a form of racism.

In an experimental study conducted in 2010, Vittrup and Holden wanted to see how educational videos about race paired with in-depth parent-child conversations about race could affect White childrens’ racial attitudes towards Black people. In order to explore this hypothesis, they instructed all parents to show the video to their children and instructed half of them to have an in-depth conversation about race. However, participant diary entries throughout the process revealed that, even when instructed to do so, only 10% of the participants actually had an in-depth discussion about the racial commentary in the videos. This shows that White parents are often very uncomfortable discussing race, even with explicit instructions. This discomfort is echoed in this interviewee’s responses.

“If children derive their racial attitudes from observations of their mothers’ nonverbal behaviors, it is likely that mothers’ cross-race relationships are especially impactful. That is, children whose mothers show positive emotions toward racial out-group members (rather than mere contact with racial out-groups) may develop positive racial attitudes” (Pahlke, Bigler, & Suizzo, 2012). In other words, when parents show positivity towards other races, children replicate these behaviors in their own life. We saw in this interview that, because his parents had a close relationship with a Brazilian family, the interviewee had very inclusive and color-conscious views regarding race.

This interviewee mentions how much colorblind ideology there was in his education, something that can have dire consequences on a person’s education (especially when it comes to learning about the achievements of people of color). For example, in a study, conducted by Schofield in 2007, she spent some time collecting data in a middle school that had a large number of explicit and implicit colorblind practices, including a rule against using the words “White” and “Black” as descriptors. This school also encouraged teachers to avoid discussing race in the classroom, leading many students to have absurd gaps in knowledge when it came to the race of various influential Americans. There was even one student who was shocked to learn that Martin Luther King Jr. was Black, since he had always assumed that he was White. This is just one extreme example which demonstrates how problematic colorblind teachings in schools can be. If race is ignored, then students will miss out on important knowledge about the accomplishments of people of other races.

In a study by Vittrup (2016), the results suggested that only 30% of White American mothers were categorized as having a color conscious approach when discussing race with their children, whereas 70% indicated a color blind or color mute approach. In our interview, almost all of our White participants said that they were taught with a color-blind approach. Those who taught their children with a color blind approach seemed to believe that being silent about race would make their children less likely to notice racial differences, thus remaining unbiased. Many parents also indicated that they would only start a discussion about race if an issue came up or if the child asked specific questions about race.

In a 2015 article Hagerman investigated White childrens’ interpretations of racial ideology using data from a two-year long ethnographic study of affluent White families. The findings demonstrated that children did not merely adopt colorblind ideology without critique. Instead, children engaged in a process of “interpretive reproduction” where they both re-created and adapted colorblind ideology. This included decisions about if, how, and when colorblind frames were used. According to Hagerman, “acknowledging the active role children play in their own racial socialization, this article complicates the theory of white habitus, arguing for greater recognition of children’s agency and innovation in this socialization process.” In other words, children do have agency when it comes to processing the way that their parents present race. We can see evidence of this because, even though almost all of the White interviewees mentioned that their parents used a color-blind approach, they all rejected color blindness as a valid ideology and stated that they would use a different approach with their own children.

In the next section, you will see many explanations of potential consequences of colorblind ideology proposed by the students we interviewed, many of which are also supported by empirical findings. However, there are many other consequences of colorblind ideology that were not predicted by our interviewees. This includes evidence that participants exposed to a colorblind mind-set (rather than a value-diversity mind-set) were less likely to detect subtle and explicit instances of racism and less likely to explain the incident of discrimination in a way that prompted teachers to intervene (Apfelbaum, Pauker, Sommers, & Ambady, 2010). This means that colorblind ideology could have dire consequences for both recognizing and reporting racial discrimination.

Furthermore, a study by Richeson and Nussbaum (2004) revealed that when White college students were exposed to either a multicultural or a colorblind message, the color-blind perspective generated greater racial attitude bias measured both explicitly and implicitly. This finding shows that, contrary to the proposed goal of color blindness (the goal of reducing prejudice), this ideology can actually create more racial bias among those who endorse it.

This interviewee’s suggestion that color blindness can lead to less support for affirmative action has been supported in psychological literature. A study by Mazzocco, Cooper and Flint (2011) found that greater support for colorblind ideology was correlated with more opposition to affirmative action. However, this was only the case when it came to White participants who expressed relatively low levels of prejudice. For those high in racial prejudice, colorblind ideology made little difference because they were unlikely to support affirmative action overall. Whites lower in prejudice (but high in colorblind ideology) generally justified their lack of support with the belief that discrimination was declining and that it was important to balance the interests of both White people and people of color. In other words, colorblind beliefs may lead to ignorance or denial of the amount of discrimination that people of color face, as well as the belief that all people should be treated equally, regardless of current and historical discrimination.

This finding is supported by the Apfelbaum, Pauker, Sommers, & Ambady article (2010), discussed earlier. Here, the interviewee is proposing the idea that colorblindess may be a kind of “get out of jail free card.” This is a possible explanation for the aforementioned finding because, when one decides to ignore race, they may also wind up ignoring racial inequalities and discrimination or even justifying their ignorance with colorblind ideas such as, “I see everyone equally,” and “I don’t judge people based on race.”

In a 2019 article, Farago, Davidsona and Byrd discussed the implications of color blind and color-conscious ideology in racial socialization. According to their findings, silence, color blindness, and color-muteness are potentially harmful aspects of ethnic-racial socialization that teach children to avoid recognizing and discussing issues of race and racism. They also found that color or race consciousness can help children bravely recognize race and confront racism. They ultimately concluded that an understanding ethnic-racial socialization dynamics in early childcare settings allows people to better understand how to prepare educators who are ready to support children of color when issues of racism or discrimination arise. Therefore, we must better understand how children of color can be supported and celebrated not despite of, but because of their racial identity, and how White children can be supported to become allies and champions for inclusion.

In the video, this interviewee discussed how, in school, race was only brought up as a negative thing that would cause discrimination for her and other people of her race. Because of this, she later said that she wanted to teach her future kids to celebrate their race and culture instead of just presenting it as something negative. This is echoed later in the video where a female Black interviewee discusses how she plans to celebrate her culture and actively teach her children about influential people of color.

Cultural socialization is one of four methods of racial socialization outlined in an article by Hughes et al. (2006). In this method, parents implement practices that teach their children about their racial or ethnic heritage and history, promote cultural customs and traditions, and promote children’s cultural, racial, and ethnic pride. This can occur either deliberately or implicitly. Cultural socialization is the most common form of racial socialization and often occurs in the form of daily routines involving cultural practices. However, it can also include more explicit practices, which we can see in the statement made by this interviewee. By explicitly highlighting the contributions of influential Black individuals (and other individuals of color), she would be instilling pride in her children regarding their race and sharing more about their racial/ethnic history, making this a great example of cultural socialization.

Preparation for bias is another common method of racial socialization outlined in the Hughes et al. (2006) article. In this method, parents attempt to teach their children about discrimination and also provide some coping strategies for these probable future instances of prejudice. Preparation for bias often varies across different racial groups, with Black parents being the most likely to use the strategy. In a qualitative study on preparation for bias, only 5% of Black parents reported that they had never discussed discrimination with their children (Frabutt, Walker, and MacKinnon-Lewis, 2002). On the other hand, Japanese-American and Chinese-American parents rarely discuss issues of discrimination (Nagata & Cheng, 2003; Chen, 1998). Considering these findings about the prevalence of the preparation for bias method of racial socialization among the Black community, it’s interesting to see that this interviewee specifically mentioned that he might one day need to prepare his children for discrimination if he were to marry a Black woman.