White German parents' racial-ethnic socialization in an East German city

Parents as children’s central socialization agents play an important role in making sense of changing societies and ultimately in dismantling prejudice and racial-ethnic inequities (Umaña-Taylor & Hill, 2020). The goal of the current study was to assess racial-ethnic socialization (RES) exploratively in a white German context. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 28 white German parents of elementary school children in an East German city and analyzed the data with a reflective thematic analysis (Braun et al., 2019). The most prominent theme was a silence about race (i.e. an avoidance of topics around race-ethnicity, privilege and racism altogether). Many parents also reported pro-diversity messages (e.g., “diversity is valuable”), which often remained abstract and disconnected from concrete practices. Parents’ descriptions also often entailed stereotypical images and Othering, and in some cases promotion of mistrust. An important underlying theme was insecurity and hesitancy regarding appropriate language and age-appropriate ways to address these topics.