The Concept of Race on Campus: Exploring the Nature of College Students’ Racial Conceptions

Abstract

Despite the widely documented benefits associated with racial diversity in higher education, less is known about why and how race matters. A potential answer may be found in how students conceptualize race. This qualitative study explores students’ underlying racial conceptions, which have been shown to influence various attitudes and behaviors. Semistructured interviews with 18 undergraduates at one racially diverse campus reveal four distinct racial conceptions that are related to the line of inquiry in which race is evoked and influenced by campus contexts. The findings suggest a potential model of campus racial conceptualization with implications for student affairs research and practice.

Interpersonalizing cultural difference: A grounded theory of the process of interracial friendship development and sustainment among college students.

“…are growing up in a colorblind society in which interracial friendships and marriages are commonplace and racism is largely a relic” (Vega, 2014, p. A1), they are not “postracial” or “colorblind”; rather, the meaning they attach to race and color has evolved as racial demographics and social interaction patterns have changed (Apollon, 2011; Vega, 2014). Today’s college students may hold multiple understandings of race, drawing upon different meanings in varied social and educational contexts (Johnston, 2014; Johnston et al, 2014). Congruently, race, ethnicity, and culture were relevant and meaningful concepts for my participants, and they expressed multiple and flexible understandings of race and ethnicity.…”

“…Only one participant (Caroline) listed her and her friend's national identities along with standard racial categories ("White American" and "Asian, Taiwanese," respectively). Caroline's understanding of race exemplifies what Johnston (2014) describes as the relational and physical contexts shaping racial conceptions: because Caroline's friend Lily was a year-long exchange student This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

The Meanings of Race Matter

“…Although Hong et al's review demonstrated the psychological processes behind lay theories' role during racial interactions, the authors only cursorily discussed influences Meanings of Race on which lay theory was used (e.g., primes from media, endorsement of cultural norms). Therefore, it is unclear how these lay understandings of race may develop, especially for college students as they likely experience and learn about race in new ways in the college campus context (Johnston, 2014).…”

“…In a previous exploratory study on college students' lay understandings of race, I found four unique racial conceptions (social, cultural, biological, power) students used to help make sense of racial phenomena (Johnston, 2014). However, as I returned to ''the field'' to collect additional data in line with constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006), I found that these conceptions of race seemed inadequate for understanding how students were reasoning through whether or not race mattered.…”

Born this Way?: U.S. College Students Make Sense of the Biosocial Underpinnings of Race and Other Identities

“…College students are likely to be educated about race, gender, sexual orientation, and other identities through the paradigm of "social identities" (Jones & Abes, 2013) and social constructionism (Khanna & Harris, 2009;Morning, 2009). Despite this fact, students maintain conceptions rooted in biological explanations of race (Johnston, 2014;Morning, 2009). As such, it is disconcerting that many scholars are dismissive of biological lines of inquiry related to identity, particularly race and gender, even though students themselves might place value on biological explanations of identity.…”