“Tolerance is inherent to our family:” White German parents’ racial-ethnic socialization in an eastern German city

Abstract

Parents help youth make sense of current society, including in relation to racial-ethnic inequity. The goal of the current study was to assess white racial-ethnic socialization (RES) in Germany. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 28 white German parents of elementary school children in an eastern German city and analyzed the data using reflexive thematic analysis. The most prominent theme was silence about race. One form this took was socialization into white normativity, with parents situating their families as “normal.” Another cross-cutting theme was insecurity about language and age-appropriate ways to address race-ethnicity. Many parents engaged in diversity socialization, though this generally remained abstract. Some parents actively engaged in stereotyping and Othering. These findings underscore the need for more attention to RES in Germany, including how context shapes the interplay of national, racial, and ethnic identities within global systems of power and oppression.

Acknowledgment

This research was conducted within the Mercator Graduate Programme Open-Mindedness, Tolerance, and Public Engagement funded by the Mercator Foundation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to their content of information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.