How Students Think About Race: Exploring Racial Conceptions and Their Implications for Student Success Among Latino Male Community College Students

Abstract

This chapter describes the importance of students’ conceptualizations of race, defined as the abstract ideas that students have about race as well as how they express these ideas as influencing their own experience or that of the social identity group(s) to which they belong. Empirical findings from a study of racial conceptualization among Latino male community college students attending a 2‐year Hispanic Serving Institution in Southern California are presented. Implications of racial conceptualization for programmatic interventions and curriculum development are discussed.

Sense of Belonging and Community Building within a STEM Intervention Program: A Focus on Latino Male Undergraduates’ Experiences

“…Participants’ divergent, conflicting, and complicated reflections on the significance of their identity statuses suggest that as SIP and ERP programs build community among participants, they should build in ways to directly engage why such programs are necessary and allow students to reflect on their own racial identities. This is particularly important for Latina/o/x students who have different racialized experiences, understandings of race, and beliefs about race and racism that may shape how they engage with supports and services on campus (Abrica & Dorsten, 2020). Absent spaces to reflect on the salience and significance of their social identities, Latino males are well positioned to reproduce the oppressive cultural dimensions of STEM fields (McGee, 2016; Rodriguez, et al, 2017).…”

Racism, Colorblindness, and Social Work Education: An Exploratory Study of California MSW Student Beliefs and Experiences

“…White students also tend to reject curriculum that addresses systems of racial oppression in part because they ultimately benefit from these systems, and because terms such as "cultural competence" and "diversity" are more equalizing and comfortable (Applebaum, 2004). Student of color groups can internalize colorblind ideals that permeate dominant culture and student of color groups do not inherently hold uniform ideologies about race (Abrica & Dorsten, 2020). Students of color hold complex racial ideologies that potentially influence their engagement with critical pedagogies and race-based interventions (Abrica & Dorsten, 2020).…”

“…Student of color groups can internalize colorblind ideals that permeate dominant culture and student of color groups do not inherently hold uniform ideologies about race (Abrica & Dorsten, 2020). Students of color hold complex racial ideologies that potentially influence their engagement with critical pedagogies and race-based interventions (Abrica & Dorsten, 2020). Alemán and Gaytán (2017) found in a small sample Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islander students, a conflict towards anti-racist higher education course content surfaced as a result of three major triggers: "(1) an entrenchment in majoritarian or dominant ideologies;…”

“…Therefore, the complexities of negotiating a minoritized identity while being complicit in upholding white supremacist structures, along with differential levels of cultural and ethnic belonging, may complicate students' day to day experiences in ways not typically captured in research (Abrica & Dorsten, 2020). Last, assumptions that students of color even recognize race or hold critical, anti-racist, social justice orientation obscures the extent to which students of color have an individual complex relationship to race and colorblind ideologies (Abrica & Dorsten, 2020). Instead recognition that students have varying perspectives about the extent to which their racialized identities shape their experiences (Abrica & Dorsten, 2020).…”

“…Last, assumptions that students of color even recognize race or hold critical, anti-racist, social justice orientation obscures the extent to which students of color have an individual complex relationship to race and colorblind ideologies (Abrica & Dorsten, 2020). Instead recognition that students have varying perspectives about the extent to which their racialized identities shape their experiences (Abrica & Dorsten, 2020).…”