https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4141-0447
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ABSTRACT
Christian colleges have become more racially diverse, but they must contend with histories of racism and White institutional presence. We examine how racial groups differ in disengagement with race talk and how perceptions of the campus racial climate shape fear, fatigue, pessimism, and colorblindness as reasons for disengaging with race talk. Drawing on survey data of students (N = 5473) enrolled on fifteen evangelical Christian colleges, we find racial differences in reasons for disengaging race talk. Black and Asian students have greater odds of reporting fear and pessimism, while Hispanic students have lower odds of reporting fear and fatigue. Black, Hispanic, and Asian students have lower odds of reporting colorblindness compared to White students. Regardless of race, perceptions of the campus racial climate also shape hindrances to race talk. Our findings suggest that racist racial hierarchies and Whiteness are perpetuated on evangelical Christian colleges through racialized emotions in disengagement in race talk.
Acknowledgements
Authors share equal authorship and are listed alphabetically. An iteration of this paper was presented at the Society for the Scientific Study-Religious Research Association Conference. We thank conference attendees for their comments. We also thank Sharon Chan for her editorial assistance and Elijah Jeong for his support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 For example, the historic scaffolds of Whiteness can be found in physical space where campus buildings or statues are named after slave holders or White supremacists. It can also be found in cultural norms in the university in which ethnic and racial studies courses are on the fringe (Corces-Zimmerman, Thomas, and Cabrera Citation2021).
2 These feelings also align with stereotype threat, which describes how members of a group may experience concern of fulfilling a negative stereotype assigned to their group (Frantz et al. Citation2004, 1612; Steele Citation1997). The fear of appearing racist or prejudiced may impact how White people navigate racial dialogue (Apfelbaum, Sommers, and Norton Citation2008; Frantz et al. Citation2004; Goff et al. Citation2013; Leonardo and Porter Citation2010; Richeson and Shelton Citation2007).
3 WRID describes how White individuals learn of themselves as racialized beings, recognize the complexities of racism, seek out information and engage in allyship, and develop a positive racial identity that does not encompass superiority (Flynn Citation2015; Citation2018; Helms Citation1990; Lawrence and Tatum Citation2012).
4 The data we use is secondary data and is a composite of these universities’ data. As a result, we did not need to seek IRB approval at our institutions because we are using secondary data designed and collected by the universities in the data set.
5 The survey instrument did not include more nuanced Protestant categories. Future research should examine religious differences among different types of Protestants.