Know your role: Black college students, racial identity, and performance

Abstract

This article is a report of a critical constructivist study of racial identity and performance among 13 Black, traditional-age students enrolled at three different colleges, two historically Black and one predominantly White. The study’s approach understood identity to be socially constructed and reliant upon community affirmation and validation. The findings highlight (1) the role of internal community pressure, (2) the ways in which racial performance dominated the students’ discussions of their racial identities, and (3) the intersection of internalized racism and sexism. The overarching conclusion points to the need for promoting acceptance of racial heterogeneity within communities of Black young adults. Implications of these findings for research and practice recommend that college administrators and educators pay more attention to the influence of campus student communities on racial identity as by-products of cultural production.

Keywords:

• Black college students
• race
• identity performance
• schools
• cultural production

Acknowledgements

Funding for this study was generously provided by ACPA – College Student Educators International’s Emerging Scholar Grant. I am deeply grateful to V. Leilani Kupo for her assistance with the preparation of this manuscript during her doctoral studies at Bowling Green State University.