“I just chill and keep quiet ya’ know”: understanding Black college students’ silence during in-class racial conversations at an AANAPISI/HSI

Abstract

ABSTRACT Communication scholars have considered silence in (higher) education as indicative of a range of cultural attitudes and an exercise of power. Some communication scholars consider student silence in classrooms as problematic, wherein a lack of participation in the learning process via student voice constitutes an act of resisting educators and education. Others conceptualize it as a way to challenge oppression or as a part of students' cultural identity. This study examines 21 Black college students' impetus for communicating silence during in-class discussions at a large Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-serving institution (AANAPISI) and a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) 4-year university on the U.S. West Coast. Given the anti-Black phenomena in recent years (e.g., police violence, anti-Black education laws, Black Lives Matter protests), this study investigates the reasoning behind Black students' reasons for communicating silence within in-class discussions of race/racial phenomena. This study found Black students communicate in-class silence for three overarching reasons: (1) silence due to feeling underrepresented, (2) silence to avoid (negative) peer attention, and (3) silence due to fear of instructor retaliation. Findings inform how instructors can better approach racial discussions by mitigating Black student racial labor, foster civility, and move toward improving cross-racial learning during in-class interactions.