Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Precollege Racial Socialization of White Undergraduate Students

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to better understand how white students are socialized to think about race in their precollege environments. While a great deal of scholarship has examined the racial attitudes, beliefs, and ideologies of white students in college, much less is known about how race is learned and rendered significant in precollege contexts. This study explored how 40 white undergraduates were socialized to think about race in two critical precollege environments: their neighborhoods and schools. The results of this study emphasize that while participants came from racially homogenous communities, they were not empty vessels merely waiting to be filled up with new information about race in college. Rather, they experienced a number of contexts that imparted particular messages about the nature of race, racism, and whiteness prior to ever stepping foot on campus.