Black Mixed-Race Students and the Role of Micro-Contexts at Differing Institutional Types

• In Event: 40852 - Race and Ethnicity: Racialization, Socialization, and Identity

Abstract

Sociological research has long demonstrated the significance of cultural context in the shaping of personal and group identity (Swidler 1986; Nagel 1994; Baumeister & Muraven 1996; Schachter 2005; Phinney & Baldelomar 2011). Nevertheless, little is known about how Black mixed-race students forge identity and belonging in educational settings differentiated by racial diversity. Adopting a symbolic interactionist framework, I systematically and formally define ‘micro-contexts’ as the immediate interactions between persons, leading to specific behavioral outcomes. An emphasis on micro-contexts is especially useful in disentangling self-identification from belonging, and sense of belonging from reciprocated belonging for individuals with liminal identities. With this emphasis, I analyze fifty interviews with Black mixed-race students, twenty-five each from a comparable Predominantly White Institution (PWI) and a Historically Black College/University (HBCU). I find that ‘belonging tests’ emerge in the peer micro-contexts for students at both institutions. Black mixed-race students from the HBCU are subject to more peer-policed belonging tests than their PWI counterparts. However, Black mixed-race students from the HBCU overwhelmingly report a strong sense of belonging to the Black community and their racialized institutional community. PWI students, who were less likely to report such belonging, were more likely than the HBCU students to externally identify as Mixed rather than Black alone.

Author

• Eliana Camille Gagnon, Princeton University