Culture, Identity, and Racial Attitudes among American Indian College Students in the Southwest

• In Event: 174 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 15. Racial Attitudes

Abstract

While the literature on racial attitudes has largely centered on White and African Americans, the present study expands our knowledge by looking at how self-identified American Indians in higher education in the Southwest talk about race today and how this is related to their cultural experiences and identities. Research on Native Americans racial attitudes is important since American Indians continue to be a disadvantaged minority group and hold a unique position in American society. The diversity of their experiences, from tribal participation to various levels of assimilation provides an opportunity to examine how racial attitudes may be related to attachment to American Indian identities and cultural experiences. Using Bonilla-Silva’s framework of racial ideologies, this study examines the racial attitudes among a sample of 29 self-identified American Indian undergraduate students who participated in semi-structured interviews. With focused coding, responses are coded racially progressive—indicating an awareness of racial inequalities, or color-blind—indicating that race no longer matters in life outcomes. Content analysis of frequency of racially progressive attitudes allows a comparison of distributions of racial attitudes with attachment to American Indian identities and other cultural experiences. Consideration is also given to two prominent issues raised by students in open-coding, challenges to authenticity and cultural preservation.

Authors

• Maria-Elena D. Diaz, University of Oklahoma

• Erin Brickman, University of Oklahoma