(Dis)connected: Youth Peer Culture during School Racial/Ethnic Integration Reform

• In Event: 3581 - Section on Sociology of Children and Youth Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Children, Youth and Stratification Processes

Abstract

Boys and girls of color navigate racism within school-based youth peer cultures, especially at the frontlines of racial/ethnic integration reform (Eder, 1995). Previous research, however, has focused on academic outcomes, and has only begun to explore racism within youth peer cultures (Chapman, 2014; Scott, 2003). Accordingly, this study explores how adolescents enrolled in racial/ethnic integration programs experience school-based youth peer culture. Using a socio-spatial qualitative methodology (Campos-Holland, Dinsmore, & Kelekay, 2016) and conceptually drawing from critical approaches (Campos-Holland, 2017), we explore how 74 adolescent boys and girls of color, 13-17 years of age, navigate youth peer culture in suburban and magnet integration programs in a U.S. Northeastern metropolitan area dominated by a ‘school choice’ culture. The results suggest that racial/ethnic micro-aggressions are used to police social boundaries within youth peer cultures. This, however, varies across programs, with White privilege in suburban schools and an appreciation for diversity in magnet schools producing differentially-racialized youth peer cultures. Ultimately, White privilege is at the center of peer resistance to racial/ethnic integration reform; accordingly, a curriculum that addresses racism within youth peer cultures can facilitate meaningful integration.

Authors

• Ana Lilia Campos-Manzo, Connecticut College

• Luis Enrique Ramos, YES Prep Public Schools & Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy at Connecticut College

• Grace Hall, Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy at Connecticut College

• Christina Ignatiadis, Columbia School of Social Work