Institute of Child Development

Culture and Family Life Lab

What is the culture of Whiteness?

The culture of Whiteness is a set of beliefs, practices, and laws that favor the White racial group (Helms, 2017, p. 718). The culture of Whiteness is centuries-old, yet lives on. Some of the modern features of the culture of Whiteness include racial silence, fragility, and passivity in the face of racial injustice.

What is the Whiteness Pandemic?

Race matters in the United States because racism still exists and young children perceive much more than we usually realize. When parents and other adults are silent around race, it communicates apathy or approval of racism even if this is the opposite of what adults intend. On the other hand, parents can challenge the culture of Whiteness, sending a powerful message to their children.

The Whiteness Pandemic refers to the invisible intergenerational transmission of the culture of Whiteness from adults to children through explicit words and actions or silence and implicit modeling (Ferguson et al., 2022). Like other pandemics, everyone can play a role in stopping the transmission. We wanted to better understand the culture of Whiteness and support parents to challenge it, which motivated the Whiteness Pandemic Project, a research study in Minnesota. Note: The Whiteness Pandemic Project has concluded and the purpose of this web page is to provide results and resources.

Key takeaways from the Whiteness Pandemic Project

  1. Although the Whiteness Pandemic continues, significant antiracist change can come out of the toughest historical moments.
  2. Antiracist parenting is alive and well. Many White parents are invested and committed to their antiracist journeys both as people and also as parents.
  3. Walking the antiracist walk goes hand in hand with talking the antiracist talk. Parents can only socialize their children up to the level of their own comfort in handling racial information and experiences. So, we encourage you to continue pairing your courageous parenting conversations with your own personal growth to manage the tough emotions that come with the territory.
  4. Whichever stage of change in antiracist parenting best describes where you are today, remember that antiracism is a journey and you are not alone.

Our research findings

    The Whiteness Pandemic in 2020

    The Whiteness Pandemic in 2020

    Similar to prior studies, our research in 2020 right after Mr. George Floyd’s murder showed that the majority of White American parents in the Minneapolis metro had not spoken with their children up to a month afterwards about his murder, about racism, or about the resulting social unrest (Ferguson et al., 2022). Additionally, most parents in that study who did choose to have a parent-child conversation used power-evasive language that minimized or denied the reality of systemic racism in society.

    Why? One of the big reasons was emotional: many parents felt nervous, fearful, and overwhelmed internally and struggled to manage these emotions sparked by the racial reckoning occurring externally, which undermined their parent-child conversations. A smaller set of parents also felt negative emotions like sadness and grief, but paired this with hope and striving towards future change. These emotions motivated courageous conversations with their kids about race.

    In 2020, most parents felt: overwhelmed, nervous/on edge, protective

    “George Floyd’s death and the Mpls riots have been very stressful and overwhelming.” ID 156 (12 yo)

    “Between COVID-19 and the George Floyd protests, we are at capacity of our ability to manage emotions and take in and process information, especially the kids.” ID 158 (5 yo)

    “These events have caused me to be more on edge and nervous.” ID 103 (2 yo)

    In 2020, some antiracist parents felt: sadness/grief/loss, passionate/frustrated/exhausted, concerned/worried, stretching/striving/hopeful

    “Our family is feeling very frustrated and saddened by the death of George Floyd.” ID 55 (3 yo)

    “George Floyd’s death and subsequent rioting has been difficult to handle and navigate as a parent and concerned member of society” ID 93 (6 yo)

    “The murder of George Floyd has impacted the Twin Cities and the whole country. The seismic shift amongst white people is incredibly important and we hope the wave continues. While Covid has changed our daily ways of life, and will likely impact our lives for some time, the social impact of George Floyd’s death was a long time coming. Hopefully this will have lasting change on our society far longer than Covid.” ID 178 (3 yo)

    Excerpt from Table 2, Ferguson et al., 2022.

    The Whiteness Pandemic today

    The Whiteness Pandemic today

    We are still in the middle of the Whiteness Pandemic, and it seems even stronger now in some ways. We know that a lot of parents are feeling hopeless and scared - again - like you may have felt in 2020. But remember what our prior research showed? Your emotions are tied to your parenting, so we encourage you to keep investing in your own personal growth: the emotions on the right side of the Table above will serve as a good foundation for your antiracist parenting. Remember: What you say and do with your child as an antiracist parent matters and makes a difference. Your antiracist parenting matters.

    We know this because in 2021 many parents from our original 2020 research study returned to tell us about their parenting emotions, beliefs, and practices one year later. This 2021 research study found that deep and sustained antiracist changes had occurred among most of these mothers in their identity and parenting one year later! Their positive antiracist changes were facilitated by listening to antiracist media, engaging with antiracist movements, and being aware of legal justice (e.g., conviction and sentencing of Derek Chauvin for Floyd’s murder).

    Additionally, about 3 in every 4 parents were better able to handle the challenging emotions that come with race-related information. These parents had invested more time in self-directed learning about race, racism, and antiracism across one year and at the end of the year, they were clearer about their own values and beliefs, they had a larger vocabulary of words to talk about these topics, and they also had more frequent parent-child conversations about these topics. In other words, most parents became better antiracist parents by 2021!

    Progression of emotions and parent-child conversations based on parents’ personal growth in their identity and managing race-related emotions:

    1. Emotion: Shut down

    Conversation: Does not talk to children about race, racism, or antiracism

    1. Emotion: Fear

    Conversation: Talks the antiracist talk with children (if asked)

    1. Emotion: Courage

    Conversation: Uses antiracism lingo like a second language with children 

    1. Emotion: Humility

    Conversation: Walks the antiracist walk with children (open, intentional conversations about race are normalized in casual everyday conversation)

    Excerpt from Table 3 (Ferguson & Eales, in press)

    In our 2021 follow-up study, we also found that different mothers took different pathways towards the same destination on their antiracist journey. For example, one mother for whom religion was very important chose not to watch the Chauvin trial but discussed Floyd’s murder and Chauvin’s trial with her children when they asked her about it, explaining racial justice using a Christian parable. “We want our children to be educated and know what is right” she said. Another mother, who was not religious, listened to the radio and read online recaps of the Chauvin trial on a daily basis and valued reality-based parenting conversations about race, racism, and antiracism to prepare her child for future conversations: “I want them to understand the reality of racism in our society and also the immense privilege they have as white males…It’s a hard topic to address with a young child, but I want him to have a foundation for later discussions”. 

    Finally, our 2021 research study suggested that there are 5 stages of change in antiracist parenting:

    Five overlapping, cyclical stages in the change process for antiracist parenting. Details in caption.

    Figure 1 (Ferguson & Eales, in press). Copyright 2025, R1 Publishing LLC. Adapted with permission to apply the transtheoretical model of behavior change (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983) to antiracist behavior change.

    Image description: A diagram titled "Stages of Change" illustrates five stages in the change process for antiracist parenting, based on Ferguson & Eales, in press. The stages are arranged in a circle around Behavior at the center with text boxed (copied below) explaining the specific behaviors common within each stage.

    1.  Precontemplation (Orange): No intention of antiracist change; uninformed, unaware, or demoralized. Denial or avoidance of one's role in racism prevails.
    2.  Contemplation (Yellow): Aware of one's role in racism but ambivalent about antiracist change and chronically stuck in superficial, inconsistent, or contradictory actions.
    3.  Preparation (Green): Own one's role in racism and taking preparatory steps toward antiracist change, such as reading or creating a plan of action.
    4.  Action (Blue): Actively and quite effortfully making specific, observable antiracist lifestyle changes known to counter racist patterns.
    5.  Maintenance (Purple): Humbly committed to lifelong antiracist learning through steady, lower-effort actions to prevent relapse into old racist patterns.

    Five overlapping, cyclical stages in the change process for antiracist parenting. Details in caption.

    Resources

      Practical resources for self-reflection as an antiracist person

      Practical resources for self-reflection as an antiracist person

      Talking with children about race, racism, and antiracism is most beneficial if you, as the White parent/caregiver, are personally committed to growth in your own antiracist identity and journey. Here are a few useful resources:

      Practical resources for courageous parenting as an antiracist parent

      Practical resources for courageous parenting as an antiracist parent

      Acknowledging race and racism with your children will not make them racist. In fact, having explicit conversations with your children about race, racism, and antiracism is essential to making them antiracist. If you are new to these conversations, it may help to plan ahead on how to start them. And like other parenting discussions, short, frequent conversations are much better than having one long conversation, especially during natural, teachable moments. To help you on your antiracist journey, we have carefully curated some resources from the American Psychological Association, Division 37 (The Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice) and other sources.

      What to read or watch to prepare before talking with children about race, racism, and antiracism

      What to read and watch along with children as part of a discussion about race, racism, and antiracism

      More resources

      More resources

      Citations

      The Culture and Family Life Lab is a research laboratory; the contents of this website stem from research evidence.