CHILDREN OF A TROUBLED TIME by Margaret A. Hagerman is about "Growing Up with Racism in Trump's America." Hagerman, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Mississippi State University, set out to interview students aged 10 to 13 "across race and class groups" and geographically split between Mississippi and Massachusetts. She explores the attitudes and statements of these young people after the 2016 Trump election and the "regular anti-Black words and actions of the Trump White House." Her research centered around key questions she identifies as: (1) How did children make sense of racism in the Trump era? What can we learn about whether and how dominant racial ideology shifts? (2) How do the political times in which kids experience their childhoods shape how they develop ideas about race and racism? And (3) Looking at the emotional component, what role do racialized, group-level emotions play in a racial learning process? Hagerman is clearly a scholar – she has won awards for previous writing (White Kids) and this latest text is full of footnotes with roughly a fourth of the text devoted to appendices, notes, bibliography, and index. However, she is not neutral, saying "As soon as Donald Trump took office, experts predicted that his presidency would negatively impact kids in the United States. They were right." Her analysis is sometimes difficult to read because of the painful quotes she incorporates from students of all races, but it is worthwhile to do so, particularly since she was able to speak with students and include their reactions to the events of January 6th. As Hagerman says, "Listening to kids express dehumanizing racist ideas and think they're normal really concerns me." For more background, please see this review and interview posted by NYU (publishing press) or the article "Did kids become more racist under Trump?" published recently in New York magazine:

https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2024/april/young-americans-and-how-the-trump-years-changed-them.html

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/racism-trump-margaret-hagerman.html

An accessible academic text where the author has interviewed many 10-12 year old children from various backgrounds living in America. A sobering book, reflecting a broad spectrum of experience, some white children were racist, other white children were vehemently opposed to racism. I was struck by how frightened many of the children of colour were, how many had experienced heightened incidents of racism following the election of president Trump. This being an academic text and therefore the children's views being presented without comment, actually adds to the intensity of reading about what they have lived through.
I also found it impressive how politically involved all of the children were, I feel like there is very much a cultural narrative that we must protect children, especially from politics. What is clear from this book is that children are aware, either from their lived experience or from media (usually social), and therefore we really do need to be talking to them and helping them understand and process what they are living with and through.
The conclusion is helpful, full of carefully considered thoughts and suggestions of how we can understand these children's perspectives and also how we can help them. An important and interesting book.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.