In her work, Suizzo, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, notes that “white anxiety starts during childhood when white children are often taught that all skin colors are equal and should therefore be ignored. This is called “colorblind socialization” and many white parents practice it with their children early on in a well-intentioned but highly damaging attempt to prevent racism.” Ultimately, “If well-intentioned white parents are afraid to talk about color and the realities of racism, their kids won’t learn how to have those conversations with their peers. And when they witness racism at school or on the Internet, if they don’t have someone or some experience to help them counter those hateful words and understand where they come from, they may actually believe them.”
