ABSTRACT
Serving as a critical cultural resource for addressing marginalization-related stressors across the life span, racial-ethnic socialization refers to the messages that Black (i.e., African American) parents provide to their children about what it means to be a person of color in a society where Blacks are individually, culturally, and institutionally marginalized (Brown and Krishnakumar, 2007; Hughes et al., 2002). Brown and Krishnakumar (2007) offer a two-fold conceptualization of racial-ethnic socialization. Racial socialization includes messages regarding how to recognize and cope with racism as well as engage in cross-racial interactions. Ethnic socialization consists of youth learning about Black heritage and history and being exposed to Black cultural aesthetics (e.g., art, literature) and Black cultural values (e.g., ethnic pride). For Black undergraduate women, racial-ethnic socialization may be critical as it provides them with a racial-social script for negotiating two marginalized statuses.
