What factors make it hard for parents to communicate with each other?

In Washington, the issues of race and social class are really complex and very alive, but no one talks about it. Religion can be a filter. Even these humongous houses people live in can be a filter.

From my conversations with parents, what emerges is that there’s a really unspoken thing going on between white parents and black parents, and parents from other countries.

There’s an assessment by a lot of (non-white) people I’ve heard which is, “I don’t trust white parents because they don’t know how to get their kids under control.” white parents often think black parents are too hard on their own kids.

Too often these differences are never discussed, or even acknowledged.