Contesting Racial Categories: Variability and Complexity in University Student Ethnoracial Self-Identifications

• In Event: At the Institutional Level: Student Experiences With Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Abstract

Framed by racial formation theory, this study examines the ways college students are contesting the boundaries of standard survey racial identity categories. We examine the ethnoracial categorization choices of 24,000 U.S. higher education students who participated in a survey administered at 21 colleges, focusing on the more than 1,300 students who chose to write-in their racial identity in an open box. We find students have a wide range of categorization schemas that do not map onto the five races and an ethnicity that are frequently used in US data collection. This paper contributes to our understanding of college student ethnoracial identity by demonstrating the ways in which categories are messy, complex, and contested.

Authors

• Karly Ford, Pennsylvania State University

• Megan Holland Iantosca, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Leandra M. Cate, University of Washington