Youth experiences of racism and family ethnic-racial socialization in Germany: What we (don't) know

Abstract

In 1988 the youth-led movement “Schools without racism, schools with courage” was established in Belgium and quickly spread throughout Europe. German schools adopted this movement in 1995. Decades later, racism is not yet a strong developmental science research topic for studies of youth in Germany and Europe. In this commentary we argue that it should be. With increasing hate crimes and harassment, there is also a need to understand how families are socializing young people to be prepared for, cope with, resist, and disrupt racism. This type of ethnic-racial socialization affects important developmental processes—adolescent ethnic-racial identity development and intergroup and institutional understanding and relations—and requires a more prominent place of study in a migration-diverse Germany. Studying these issues in this particular sociohistorical context will also contribute to a more context-specific understanding of youth experiences of racism.