Examining the Experiences of Black Undergraduate Students at Predominately White Institutions Amid the Dual Pandemics

• In Event: Exploring Black Belongingness in Postsecondary Education

Abstract

In 2020, COVID-19 along with the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others became known as the "dual pandemics" (Jones, 2021). This study used Racial Battle Fatigue (W. A. Smith et al., 2007) as conceptual framework, and employed qualitative methods to examine the experiences of seven Black undergraduate students enrolled at predominately White institutions. Analysis of the data reveals the dual pandemics caused severe disorientation and isolation in Black college students. Compounded by an anti-Black institutional climate is the awareness of everyday racism felt by simply being Black in America. As a result, participants described significant levels of anxiety, fatigue, and hypervigilance characterized by intense fear over the past three years.

Author

• Travette A. Webster, University of Texas at Austin