Researchers from a range of disciplines emphasize that effectively socializing children about race and racism is vital to promoting positive outcomes, such as disrupting the development of racist attitudes and beliefs. While parents and guardians influence children's racial attitudes and beliefs, children also learn about race and racism from many other important adults in their lives, such as teachers, community leaders, and librarians. Yet race-related topics are largely absent or underdeveloped from child-facing programming, policies, and procedures. In this paper, we describe three major barriers to effectively socializing children about race and racism within child-facing institutions like libraries, museums, and schools: (1) adults’ (often inaccurate) beliefs about children's social and cognitive race-related development, (2) adults’ knowledge and comfort discussing race and racism with others, and (3) social norms that minimize explicit discussion of race and racism in institutional and interpersonal contexts. To contextualize these barriers, we address how children can process and reason about race across childhood and outline the evidence-based benefits of socializing children about race and racism inside and outside the home. Finally, we provide recommendations aimed at translating this research to child-focused spaces and provide general guidelines to consider when implementing such practices in their own spheres of influence. In sum, we argue that effective socialization about race and racism benefits all children and can (and should!) be achieved successfully outside of the home; and that adults who interact with children must interrogate their own beliefs, biases, and perspectives, work to develop cultural competence, and invest in and continually reassess practices and policies to facilitate effective socialization about race and racism.

中文翻译：

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了解在面向儿童的机构中与儿童谈论种族和种族主义的挑战和机遇

来自多个学科的研究人员强调，有效地让儿童了解种族和种族主义对于促进积极成果至关重要，例如破坏种族主义态度和信仰的发展。虽然父母和监护人影响儿童的种族态度和信仰，但儿童也从生活中许多其他重要的成年人（例如教师、社区领袖和图书管理员）那里了解种族和种族主义。然而，在面向儿童的规划、政策和程序中，与种族相关的主题基本上不存在或未得到充分发展。在本文中，我们描述了在图书馆、博物馆和学校等面向儿童的机构中有效地让儿童了解种族和种族主义的三个主要障碍：（1）成人（通常不准确）对儿童与种族相关的社交和认知发展的信念， (2) 成年人与他人讨论种族和种族主义的知识和舒适度，以及 (3) 尽量减少在机构和人际背景下明确讨论种族和种族主义的社会规范。为了将这些障碍联系起来，我们讨论了儿童如何处理和推理整个童年时期的种族问题，并概述了让儿童了解家庭内外的种族和种族主义的社会化的基于证据的好处。最后，我们提供了旨在将这项研究转化为以儿童为中心的空间的建议，并提供了在他们自己的影响范围内实施此类实践时需要考虑的一般准则。总之，我们认为，关于种族和种族主义的有效社会化有利于所有儿童，并且可以（而且应该！）在家庭之外成功实现；与儿童互动的成年人必须审视自己的信仰、偏见和观点，努力发展文化能力，投资并不断重新评估实践和政策，以促进有关种族和种族主义的有效社会化。