Not Quite White or Black: Biracial Students’ Perceptions of Threat and Belonging Across School Contexts

Stereotype threat posits that students who are members of negatively stereotyped groups in school should feel more threat and less belonging, especially in schools with large achievement disparities and low racial/ethnic minority representation. This research has focused primarily on the experiences of negatively stereotyped monoracial minority students, but for a biracial Black/White student who claims both a negatively stereotyped (e.g., Black) and a positively stereotyped (e.g., White) identity, do these outcomes vary? We assessed 1,399 biracial Black/White, monoracial Black, and monoracial White middle school students’ perceptions of threat and belonging in school, across four lower-stereotype-salient schools (i.e., racially diverse schools) and seven higher-stereotype-salient schools (i.e., racially homogeneous schools). Biracial students reported a similar amount of threat across school contexts, whereas monoracial students’ threat was differentially context dependent. These findings suggest biracial students may face unique identity-related threats in school and point to a need to develop supports specific to their experiences.

Dear White People

The film Dear White People takes place at the fictional primarily white institution Winchester University. The cast of Caucasian American, African American, and biracial students reflect the increasing racial tensions plaguing colleges and universities throughout the United States. Incidents such as the racist chants of Ohio University’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members and the assault of Martese Johnson at the University of Virginia are blatant exemplars of the pervasive nature of institutionalized racism that is present in higher education yet remains rarely discussed. This chapter involves a critique of student reaction papers to the film and its efforts to promote awareness and understanding of race in the context of higher education. Colleges and universities are environments where students are encouraged to deliberate more critically about abstract thoughts and ideas, which oftentimes is assumed to result in a more liberal and open-minded way of thinking. Unfortunately, the myth that increased education naturally translates into acceptance of racial, ethnic, and cultural difference is a fallacy for many people.

The Impact of Racial Identity and Social Spaces on the Academic Experiences of Biracial Students: A Phenomenographic Study for School Administrative Intervention

This study explored the identity and social spaces that affects academic performances, and behavioral difficulties of biracial students. As teachers have direct experiences with biracial students in every working days in school, these serve as an opportunity for the researcher to study the academic experiences of biracial learners. This research paper is qualitative research that used the phenomenographic approach. Phenomenography is investigative, and, explanatory as, it charts the different ways on how the participants understand, conceptualize, perceive and observe the different aspects of a phenomenon in the environment around them. The participants were grade school teachers wherein their experiences with the biracial students were explored. The researcher interviewed the participants, and the interviews were transcribed verbatim. As findings, five themes were drawn by the researcher from the interview. These are: classroom profile of biracial students, academic performances, behavioral difficulties, racial identity shaped by the parents and environment, and the intervention.

Black-white Biracial Students’ Evaluations of Blackness: The Role of College in Shaping Racial Regard

This study explores biracial students’ racial regard, an evaluative component of racial identity that captures positive and negative feelings about the racial groups to which one belongs. Drawing on data from interviews with 62 black-white biracial students attending predominantly white institutions (PWIs) or historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), I explore the conditions of educational contexts that promote or hinder development of positive racial regard. HBCU students highlighted the importance of college for improving their evaluations of blackness, while narratives of improved regard were rare among PWI students. Students’ evaluations of blackness and descriptions of contact with black peers support contact theory’s propositions about the type of contact likely to improve racial attitudes; specifically, I show how HBCUs can improve racial regard by facilitating institutionally supported contact between equal-status black and biracial students in the pursuit of common goals. My findings also extend contact theory by suggesting another condition of contact that can improve evaluations of blackness: contact with a heterogeneous group of black peers. These findings add to the literature on biracial identity by exploring racial regard, an understudied dimension of racial identity with important mental health implications. The findings also speak to the importance of HBCUs for fostering positive racial regard at a time when the purpose and longevity of these institutions is often questioned.