Looking beyond the obvious to figure out the Entry Points of Racial
Awareness and Bias in Children: A Commentary of Waxman (2021)
Abstract
In “Racial Awareness and Bias Begin Early: Developmental Entry Points,
Challenges, and a Call to Action”, Waxman (2021) argues that there is a
dramatic overestimation by the community when it comes to evidence of
the time-frame when it should be discussed with children (p. 898). To
counter this problem, they promote the intention of identifying “the
developmental roots of these prejudices, forces that sustain them, and
pathways to reduce them” (p. 893). The goal of Waxman is to advance the
entry points of this bias, especially in our infants and children, as
there are obvious and apparent damaging consequences to the children,
their communities and the society as a whole. They advocate the use of a
more “comprehensive research agenda”, specifically the use of larger
empirical base, methodological tool-kit, and psychological-science
framework to identify the preliminary stages of the acquisition of
racial bias. They look back into the large body of experimental and
empirical evidence to provide an overview of the development of racial
bias in young children and infants. They then provide a substantially
comprehensive framework to tackle this issue. Finally, Waxman argues
that the strongest tool to advance the understanding and tackling of
early racial bias is by arming the parents, teachers, and other
policymakers with strong empirical evidence and evidence-based
recommendations, which would allow for better conversations within the
families and classrooms.