Exploring college students’ assessments of racially-coded language

Abstract

ABSTRACT Political scientists have examined racially-coded language for decades, particularly as such language relates to policies impacting African Americans. This research builds on that foundation, by considering how such language is interpreted by college students. College students represent an important population because their political attitudes are somewhat malleable and colleges and universities are typically somewhat diverse in terms of both instruction and student demographics. We, therefore, use a survey administered via Qualtrics to a convenience sample of college students representing five universities to assess how the college experience influences how students perceive racially-coded language. While we expect those students that are involved on campus and those that have been on campus longer to respond more negatively toward negative racial cues, our analysis provides mixed results and raises questions for further research.