Intragroup Heterogeneity and Blackness: Effects of Racial Classification, Immigrant Origins, Social Class, and Social Context on the Racial Identity of Elite College Students

Abstract

While the black population of the USA has grown more diverse with regard to ethnicity and class status, most research on racial identity relies on dichotomous proxies of racial group identification created during the civil rights era. Using a subset of the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity included in the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, a representative sample of black students at twenty-eight selective American colleges and universities, we test how black student racial identity is related to students’ ethnic, nativity, socioeconomic, and contextual experiences in childhood. Our more nuanced measure of black racial identity shows that being Black/African American is central to the new generation of black elites’ self-identity and that, contrary to prior evidence and theorization that blacks are either assimilationist or nationalist, that black students express strong support for both assimilationist and nationalist ideological beliefs at the same time. In addition, students express strong tendencies toward group membership as well as individualism; race has less of an impact on how they feel about themselves and their social relationships. Further analyses reveal substantial variation in black identity between monoracial and mixed-race blacks, and between immigrant (both first and second generation) and native blacks, but few social class differences. Notably, childhood experiences of racial segregation and social disorganization are also strongly associated with black identity and racial ideologies.