A Critical Race Perspective on an Empirical Review of Asian American Parental Racial- Ethnic Socialization

Parental racial socialization of children arises, in part, out of personal experiences with one’s own parents. Bay’s feelings of powerlessness that she and her mother felt have shaped how Bay parents her own children. She is determined to raise her children to resist and challenge racist behaviors by providing them with the support and skills to do so. As a parent, she has moved from feeling powerless to feeling empowered. In a demographically diverse country such as the United States where racial minorities will become the majority in 2044 (Colby & Ortman, 2014) and with Asian Americans as the fastest growing population (E. Lee, 2015), it is important to understand how Asian-heritage parents socialize their children to navigate and deal with issues related to race and racism (Chang, 2016; Coll et al., 1996).