All We Have Is Each Other: Black College Students' Use of Online Modes of Support

• In Event: Finding and Supporting Each Other: Black Students' Collegiate Experiences

Abstract

When the faculty or the staff couldn’t help you, or wasn’t trying to help, you had
to confide in somebody. We [Black students] had to stick together. (Brooms & Davis, 2017, p. 318)

In the quote above, a young African American man describes a common issue that occurs among Black college students who attend historically White institutions (HWIs)—they turn to each other for support because they do not receive it from the academy (Brooms & Davis, 2017). The purpose of this research study is to explore how Black college students who attend historically White institutions have turned online and offline spaces into Black spaces—spaces where resources are shared, counter-knowledge is produced, and activism is supported.

Author

• Heather Streets, University of San Francisco