Biracial Identity and the College Social Environment: An Examination of the Effect of College Racial Composition on Black-White Biracial Students’ Racial Identity Construction and Maintenance |
29th Annual SouthEastern Undergraduate Sociology Symposium 2011
Co-sponsored by Morehouse College and Emory University Departments of Sociology
Emory University, February 25-26, 2011
Kristen Clayton
Emory University
Winner of the first place prize at the 2011, 29th Annual SouthEastern Undergraduate Sociology Symposium (SEUSS).
The majority of the extant research on biracial identity focuses on documenting and describing the variety of ways in which individuals of mixed black and white ancestry identify, while paying substantially less attention to the social factors which affect biracial identity development. This study aims to address this gap in the literature by examining some of the ways social context affects biracial identity; this study specifically examines the effect of college racial composition on black-white biracial students’ racial identity construction and maintenance. In this paper I draw upon the transcripts of five taped interviews with biracial men attending an all male HBCU [Historically black colleges and universities] to show how the majority black institution affected their racial identities. Preliminary analysis of these interviews indicates that the racial composition of the men’s HBUC affected the students’ racial identities by affecting the individuals available for social comparisons, increasing students’ exposure to and familiarity with black people, and influencing the messages students received about race through both the peer and academic cultures of the institution. These social processes are the same ones described by researchers like Renn (2004), Khanna (2007), Rockquemore and Brunsma (2002*; 2002**) and Twine (1996). Taken together, these studies imply a connection between racial identity and social context that warrants further exploration.
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