Racial Climate Research Articles

A harassing climate? Sexual harassment and campus racial climate research.

In this conceptual paper, the authors discuss how research about sexual harassment and campus racial climates for undergraduate students is relegated to separate silos. Drawing on intersectionality and critical race feminist frameworks, the authors juxtapose these strands of research with attention to ethnicity/race and gender, highlighting how sexual harassment and racial climate research both aim to promote positive college environments, but with notably different approaches. The authors call for an intersectional approach that appreciates both sexual harassment as well as the racial climate, concluding with recommendations for incorporating both strands of literature into research on educational environments.

Sociocultural and Mental Health Adjustment of Black Student-Athletes: Within-Group Differences and Institutional Setting

Research has shown that African American college students have a difficult time adjusting at predominately White institutions (PWIs) in comparison with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) with regard to both general and race-related stressors (Neville, Heppner, Ji, & Thye, 2004; Prillerman, Myers, & Smedley, 1989; Sedlacek, 1999). For college student-athletes, the campus environment can challenge their capacity to ft in and adhere to academic and social expectations, perhaps especially for Black student-athletes (BSA). The current study therefore examined the sociocultural and mental health adjustment of 98 BSA based on their perceived social support, perceived campus racial climate, team cohesion, and life events using latent profle analysis (LPA). Results indicated three distinct profile groups: Low Social Support/Cohesion, High Minority Stress, and High Social Support/Cohesion. Profiles were predictive of adjustment concerns and campus setting (PWIs vs. HBCUs), highlighting within-group differences among BSA. Implications for interventions to facilitate and support healthy adjustment and success for BSA are discussed.

Examining the Effects of Campus Climate, Ethnic Group Cohesion, and Cross-Cultural Interaction on Filipino American Students' Sense of Belonging in College

The purpose of this study is to explore how campus climate, ethnic group cohesion and cross cultural interaction influence Filipino American college students' sense of belonging in college. Specifically, we examine the impact of three environmental and behavioral factors on students' sense of belonging: 1) campus racial climate, 2) ethnic group cohesion, and 3) interactions across cultures. A sample of 143 participants was analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques. Findings suggest that campus racial climate, ethnic group cohesion, and cross-cultural interaction all directly influence sense of belonging among Filipino American students. In addition, ethnic group cohesion was indirectly and positively associated with sense of belonging on campus via its direct influence on cross-cultural interactions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Food for Thought: Frequent Interracial Dining Experiences as a Predictor of Students’ Racial Climate Perceptions

This article describes a study that explored factors which influenced undergraduate students’ perceptions of the racial climate at a predominantly white liberal arts university in the South. Mixed methods results suggest that race, aspects of the institutional climate, and frequent interracial dining experiences in the campus cafeteria differentially affected students’ campus racial climate perceptions.

Cultivating Diversity and Spirituality: A Compelling Interest for Institutional Priority

Historically, Christian colleges and universities have struggled to incorporate racial and ethnic diversity into White and homogenous campuses. Research indicates that a positive racial climate is essential to promote spiritual growth for students from diverse backgrounds. As a result, diversity is a compelling interest for Christian institutions. Drawing from the challenges and the latest research on student development and campus racial climates, this article offers four pathways to cultivate diversity in Christian higher education.

Campus Racial Climate: A Litmus Test for Faculty Satisfaction at Four-Year Colleges and Universities

This article reports on a study that investigated the relationship between three dimensions of campus racial climate and faculty satisfaction with a large, nationally representative faculty sample ( N = 29,169), using a multilevel structural equation model. Results indicate that campus racial climate has a large and highly significant effect upon faculty satisfaction at the individual level.

Race without Racism: How Higher Education Researchers Minimize Racist Institutional Norms

This article analyzes 255 articles published in seven peer-reviewed journals over a 10-year period and presents examples of how higher education researchers undertake the study of campus racial climates; racial differences in access, outcomes, and attainment; and the experiences of students, faculty, and administrators of color on predominantly White campuses without explicitly considering racism or attributing quantified racial inequities to racist institutional practices. The analysis found three consistent trends: (a) racial disparities are overwhelmingly attributed to factors other than racism, (b) scholars use semantic substitutes for "racism" and "racist," and (c) critical race theory is rarely used for conceptual sense-making.

Misshaping the River: Proposition 209 and Lessons for the Fisher Case

This article advances the following findings and conclusions:Lesson #1 – At the University of California, which is subject to an affirmative action ban, recent survey data from eight campuses confirms that the campus racial climate is significantly more inhospitable for African Americans and Latinos than at UT Austin and two other peer universities. In particular, these survey data from 9,750 African American and Latino students confirm that having an affirmative action ban and low diversity is associated with African Americans and Latinos perceiving that students of their race or ethnicity are less respected on campus compared to those on campuses with affirmative action and/or higher levels of diversity. Although establishing a correlation is not the same as proving causation, these data are consistent with the conclusion that affirmative action bans and lower diversity (at least in combination) lead African American and Latino students to feel that they are less respected by their peers. Moreover, on the question of “critical mass” versus racial isolation that was discussed at length during the U.S. Supreme Court’s oral argument in the Fisher case – and that was one key consideration taken into account by UT Austin in devising its admissions program – the comparative data in this article suggest that the threat of educational harm associated with racial isolation is very real (particularly for African Americans) and should not be minimized or overlooked. Lesson #2 – Contrary to recent claims by groups opposing affirmative action, Proposition 209 (“Prop 209”) triggered a series of educationally harmful “chilling effects.” Data on UC’s freshman admit pools spanning a dozen years show that underrepresented minorities (more so for those with the strongest credentials, and especially for African Americans) are more likely to spurn an offer from UC than they were before Prop 209, and the difference compared to whites/Asian Americans has gradually widened under Prop 209. In combination with the survey data above, these findings about students’ enrollment choices again cast doubt on claims by affirmative action critics that Prop 209 benefited underrepresented minorities by lessening racial stigma. Declines in law school applications and undergraduate enrollments are also reviewed and contextualized.Lesson #3 – Affirmative action critics supporting Petitioner are propagating two related myths about credentials and performance. First, they scapegoat affirmative action as the overwhelming cause of racial/ethnic differences in SAT scores at UT Austin and elsewhere, when this relationship is quite modest for reasons stemming from the mathematics of admissions. Secondly, the critics stubbornly insist that affirmative action causes substantial “mismatch” effects on underrepresented minority student performance when in fact there is a voluminous social science literature indicating that affirmative action at highly selective institutions has a net positive effect on graduation rates and other important outcomes. Law school mismatch claims are also reviewed.Lesson #4 – While some argue in favor of class-based affirmative action in lieu of race-conscious programs, UC’s atypically large enrollment of low-income undergraduates is strong “natural experiment” evidence verifying that class-based policies are not effective substitutes for race-conscious policiesLesson # 5 – The experience of: UC Business Schools and UC Law Schools after Proposition 209 provide compelling case studies regarding the need for race-conscious affirmative action

Campus Racial Climate and Student Academic Outcomes: A Critique of Prior Research and Recommendations for Future Study

What explains the persistent gap in college retention between white American college students and those who are members of ethnic minority groups? Some argue that a large part of the answer is campus racial climate: a negative climate disproportionately harms minority students and leads to worse outcomes. Existing theory provides some basis for this expectation. However, we find that empirical support for this claim is weak. Many studies fail to compare findings across racial groups, and the few that do offer at best inconsistent support for the thesis that racial climate helps to explain the retention gap. Furthermore, many studies are plagued with severe methodological problems such as lack of attention to level of analysis and failure to offer rigorous tests of differences across groups. We discuss the implications and offer recommendations for future research.

The Influence of Campus Racial Climate on Diversity in Graduate Education

Persistent disparities in doctoral degree completion have led many institutions to hire graduate diversity officers (GDOs) to increase the presence of underrepresented minorities in graduate programs. This qualitative study of 14 GDOs considers how the dimensions of campus racial climate (CRC) influence the ability of GDOs to carry out this work. Findings suggest CRC can be applied to understanding institutional processes that affect diversity, and that internal and external climate-related forces affect the GDO’s recruitment and retention efforts. Thus, universities must go beyond demonstrating institutional commitment by creating GDO positions and attending to CRC to increase graduate diversity.

Campus Racial Climate Perceptions and Overall Sense of Belonging Among Racially Diverse Women in STEM Majors

This study examined the contributions of campus racial climate perceptions and other college environments to overall sense of belonging among racially diverse women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. The sample included 1,722 women from the 2004 National Study of Living-Learning Programs. Using a conceptual framework that integrated Weidman’s (1989) undergraduate socialization model, Astin’s (1991) I-E-O model, and Mertens’ (2005) transformative research perspective, 29% of the variance in overall sense of belonging was explained. Race/ethnicity, perceptions of the campus racial climate and the residence hall climate, and academic self-confidence emerged as significant predictors. Implications for supporting women in STEM are discussed.

Quantitative Evidence of the Continuing Significance of Race

Despite popular claims that racism and discrimination are no longer salient issues in contemporary society, members of racially underrepresented groups continue to experience disparate treatment in everyday public interactions. The context of full-service restaurants is one such public setting wherein African Americans, in particular, encounter racial prejudices and discriminatory treatment. To further understand the pervasiveness of such anti-Black attitudes and actions within the restaurant context, this article analyzes primary survey data derived from a community sample of servers (N = 200). Participants were asked a series of questions ascertaining information about the racial climate of their workplaces. Findings reveal substantial server negativity toward African Americans' tipping and dining behaviors. Racialized discourse and discriminatory behaviors are also shown to be quite common in the restaurant context. The anti-Black attitudes and actions that the authors document in this research are illustrative of the continuing significance of race in contemporary society, and the authors encourage further research on this relatively neglected area of inquiry.

<i>Neither Jew nor Gentile: Exploring Issues of Racial Diversity on Protestant College Campuses</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Neither Jew nor Gentile: Exploring Issues of Racial Diversity on Protestant College Campuses Dafina Lazarus Stewart Neither Jew nor Gentile: Exploring Issues of Racial Diversity on Protestant College Campuses. George Yancey. 2010. New York: Oxford University Press. 200 pp. Hardcover: ISBN 978-0-19-973543-3 ($29.95). George Yancey's (2010) latest book continues his research concerning Protestant colleges and issues of racial diversity in this institutional context. The book reports findings of Yancey's study of the matriculation and graduation of students of color at these institutions as well as the perceptions of various institutional diversity initiatives by both racial majority students and racial and ethnic minority students. Yancey uses his findings to make several recommendations to predominantly White Protestant colleges to bolster their recruitment and retention of racial and ethnic minority students and improve the effectiveness of institutional diversity initiatives. The book is organized in seven chapters. The initial chapters provide a context for discussing issues of racial diversity in higher education (chapter 1) and then in predominantly White Protestant colleges (chapter 2). Yancey's review of the literature regarding general differences found between how Whites and non-Whites understand race and racism is thorough and insightful. In chapter 2, Yancey also presents survey data from 161 colleges on the diversity initiatives likely to be used by predominantly White Protestant colleges, distinguishing those initiatives more likely to be used by either mainline versus conservative (defined as those institutions with denominational affiliations or sponsorships that are recognized as fundamentalist or evangelical Christian in theology and dogma) institutions. Beginning with chapter 3, Yancey then proceeds to walk the reader through the data from his study, first reporting the correlational study of factors related to matriculation and graduation of racial and ethnic minority students at the predominantly White mainline and conservative Protestant colleges in his survey sample. Yancey distinguished among those factors significantly related to matriculation and graduation of African American, Hispanic American, Native American, and Asian American college students and found that different initiatives were correlated to the matriculation and graduation of students from each of these four racial and ethnic groups. Among his findings were that the celebration of heritage months and multicultural student organizations were significantly correlated to the matriculation and graduation of African American and Native American college students. For Hispanic American and Asian American college students, their matriculation and graduation were significantly correlated to the presence of diversity-related courses in the curriculum and faculty [End Page 915] from racial and ethnic minority groups. Yancey suggests that differences among these groups' racialized experiences in the United States may account for these differences. In chapters 4 and 5, Yancey reports data from students themselves, both White (chapter 4) and non-White (chapter 5), sharing their perceptions of the effectiveness of various institutional diversity initiatives on changing the racial climate of their campuses and increasing majority student understanding of issues of race and racism. A total of 460 students from ten colleges completed the survey, 324 self-identifying as White and the remainder self-identifying as Black (45), Hispanic (31), Asian (25), multiracial (23), or other (10). The final two chapters, chapters 6 and 7, discuss the implications of Yancey's findings. In chapter 6, Yancey particularly focuses on what he identifies as his most notable findings, including the effect of having racial and ethnic minority faculty. He concludes the book in chapter 7 by offering specific recommendations for Protestant colleges and exploring the transferability of his findings for non-Protestant predominantly White colleges and universities. Although a significant body of literature exists that has studied issues of racial diversity in U.S. higher education, which Yancey reviews in the first chapter, there has been no research that particularly examines the unique institutional context of sectarian higher education and Protestant colleges, in particular. Yancey's research stands as a notable effort to fill this void in the literature. Moreover, Yancey's careful attention to the potpourri of existing institutional diversity initiatives and the realization that these initiatives may differentially influence the academic persistence and experiences of students with respect to race is laudable. Also noteworthy is Yancey's recognition that it was important to study...

Our South or Theirs?

Our South or Theirs? Michael O’Brien (bio) The South that Wasn’t There: Postsouthern Memory and History. By Michael Kreyling. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2010. xi + 223 pp. $48.00 cloth. Our South: Geographic Fantasy and the Rise of National Literature. By Jennifer Rae Greeson. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2010. x + 356 pp. $39.95 cloth. You may recall the old song by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson, which begins, “It’s a long, long time from May to December, but the days grow short, when you reach September.” I did, when reading these two books together, since (in terms of their intellectual careers) Michael Kreyling might be said to have reached September, and Jennifer Greeson is still in May. The former writes as one of the South’s preeminent literary critics, a little battle-scarred, a touch elegiac, and not too bothered about loose ends. The latter seems self-confident, intellectually ambitious, and very concerned to be systematic. There is not much of a conversation between May and September, since neither mentions the other, though Kreyling is more conscious of the existence of younger voices who have challenged and changed his subject matter than Greeson seems to be of older voices, who merit a repudiation. Perhaps to her credit, Greeson writes as though all scholars agree with one another, even across generations. At issue is the existence and pertinence of the South, though Kreyling and Greeson approach the matter from very different perspectives. The former came of age when few doubted the compelling reality of southern culture and when positivist moralists governed, and the urgent necessity was to reconceive allegiance to a South that Kreyling once [End Page 144] designated (in Inventing Southern Literature) as “a cultural product.” Greeson comes of age at a moment when, though we have moralists in abundance (and she is one), a good positivist is hard to find. No doubt Kreyling’s intellectual move carried risks. Cultures are most held together by true believers, and they have a way of flying apart when skeptics gain a respectable hearing. Still, even as a skeptic, Kreyling wrote from within the cultural product, mostly wished it well, and did not doubt its power, even while fearing that power. The South That Wasn’t There, a collection of his recent essays, offers his thoughts on the recent “postsouthern” lessening of that power, the disintegration of the cultural product, and the transition of the South from being a stark and unavoidable presence to being a memory. (As another old standard has it, “The song is ended, but the memory lingers on.”) One is tempted to write “being only a memory,” but Kreyling rightly stresses the power of memory, which may not be as great as the political and cultural power formerly wielded by John C. Calhoun or Henry Grady, but which retains a slippery viability, despite the fact that much has been forgotten. As Kreyling pithily and wistfully has it, “a South without memory . . . looks and feels a lot like a memory without a South.” His essays roam about: how Toni Morrison’s Beloved remembers slavery; how Robert Penn Warren reconfigured the racism of his 1930 essay “The Briar Patch” in I’ll Take My Stand and awkwardly tried to adapt to the changed racial climate of the 1960s; how ideas of southern honor feature in contemporary memory of the Vietnam War; how memory of the Haitian slave rebellion works in the writings of William Faulkner and Madison Smartt Bell; and how a copyright battle over a parody of Gone With the Wind exposed the contested nature of social memory. Beyond these case studies, an introduction and a concluding chapter offer general reflections, framed by Kreyling’s interest in Pierre Nora’s work on social memory and by an ambivalent engagement with the “New Southern Studies,” to which Kreyling here seems less hostile than formerly. On the whole, the book works exceptionally well. To my taste, most successful are the studies of Warren and The Wind Done Gone. The former essay says something fresh about Warren, who has had a fairly easy ride from southern cultural critics. (He was a nice man, oddly vulnerable, so most have been...

Racial Identity, School Racial Climate, and School Intrinsic Motivation Among African American Youth: The Importance of Person–Context Congruence

Researchers have been concerned with whether strong racial identification promotes or inhibits achievement motivation among African American youth, but current literatures have paid little attention to the role of youths' contexts. In this study, we outline a racial identity–context congruence framework that predicts positive benefits of a strong, positive racial identity when the context is congruent with youths' beliefs. To test this framework, we examined school racial climate as a moderator in the relationships of three racial identity variables (centrality, private regard, and public regard) with intrinsic motivation for attending school in a sample of 11th graders. Overall, results support the congruence perspective and also demonstrate how feelings of belonging at school mediate the relationship between racial identity–racial climate congruence and school intrinsic motivation.

Syncopated Hits: The Clef Club Negro Baseball Team in Jazz-Age Paris

In February and March 1940, New York Amsterdam News ran a five-part story, 12,000 Nights of Entertainment, on exciting rise and fall of Louis Mitchell's career as a jazz musician and club owner in Paris. To illustrate third installment of story, newspaper published a 1924 photograph of eleven African American ballplayers, one of whom was Mitchell, all resplendent in their new spring uniforms. (1) The team's young mascot, Jackie, sat in front of players sporting a uniform and holding some equipment. Two overlapping Cs were prominent on upper left side of uniforms, signifying team's name: Clef Club, named for James Reese Europe's New York music space and booking agency for African American musicians. But this ball team did not play in New York--or in United States for that matter; rather, it was an all--African American team that played in Paris in 1924 and 1925. Its players, with notable exception of Rayford Logan, who would become a prominent civil rights activist and professor at Howard University, were musicians who worked jazz clubs of Montmartre. (2) A great many African Americans served in France during World War I. The American military was segregated and largely distrusted black soldiers. The French, by contrast, warmly received these soldiers, displaying little to no racism, even when black soldiers socialized with French women. (3) Moreover, when James Reese Europe joined New York 369th Infantry Regiment, more affectionately called Harlem Hellfighters, he was specifically tasked with forming hottest band possible, and he did. Although 369th fought bravely and was rightfully decorated by France for their valor, their greater cultural impact was introducing jazz music to French during war. (4) After war, French celebrated life, and jazz became soundtrack to les annies folles, crazy years, roaring twenties. Given harsh racial climate in United States after war and opportunities for work and racial equality in France, a number of African Americans traveled to France during 1920S. In Paris Noir, Tyler Stovall argues, the African American community in Paris symbolizes potential of African American life in general once it is fully liberated from shackles of racism. (5) Many African Americans flourished in Paris, and we rightly celebrate their cultural contributions to music, art, literature, and social thought. (6) The Clef Club baseball team and Paris Baseball League, also known as Paris International League, ostensibly left racism off field, thus foreshadowing potential African Americans would have in post--World War II amateur and professional sports--and in America. In early summer 1914, Louis Mitchell arrived in London to play drums with his Southern Symphony Quintette in a Piccadilly restaurant. He immediately made a splash, but gig lasted only a few weeks--when World War broke out, Mitchell and his band evacuated home to New York. But Mitchell did not stay stateside long; he was back in London in spring 1915 playing drums at Ciro's, a celebrated club. (7) Soon Mitchell was touring Britain with his band, Seven Spades, just as Americans began flowing into Europe to join war effort. Of course where Americans went, baseball followed--as did American racism. Recreational baseball leagues were quickly established, such as Military Hospital Baseball League, which sponsored a game between America and Canada on October 31, 1917, in Belfast. Mitchell, an avid ballplayer, tried to play with American team, only to be refused by a southerner who exclaimed, I won't play with that nigger. (8) Indeed he didn't--for a while. On game day, Mitchell sat in stands, merely a spectator, but in seventh inning American pitcher was injured. The manager had to choose either to forfeit game or, ad hoc, to integrate team; he wasted no time putting Mitchell on mound. …

The First Black Prairie Novel: Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance’s Autobiography and the Repression of Prairie Blackness

This essay situates Chief Buffalo Child’s Long Lance: The Autobiography of a Blackfoot Indian Chief (1928) within the cultural context of its production, the anti-Black racial climate of the Canadian Prairies in the early part of the twentieth century, in order to analyze the textual repression of its author’s Blackness. Although the Autobiography has been discredited as a fraud because, as Donald B. Smith discovered, Long Lance was not in fact Blackfoot as the Autobiography claims, but “mixed blood” from North Carolina, this essay reclaims it as the first novel penned on the Prairies by a Black author, for it tells a true— more metaphorical and allegorical than factual—story about the desire on the part of displaced “new” world Blacks for Indigenous status and belonging. This essay examines the implications of claiming the Autobiography as the first Black prairie novel and explores how reading it as fiction rather than autobiography extends our understandings of “passing,” racial identification and transformation.

(Re)Defining Departure: Exploring Black Professors’ Experiences with and Responses to Racism and Racial Climate

A growing body of research demonstrates that many college environments present challenges for black professors, particularly as they face institutional and personal racism. While scholars have linked these experiences to their attrition, this qualitative study explores black professors’ larger range of responses to difficult professional environments. Twenty-eight black professors employed at two large public research universities participated in this study. Findings indicate that in addition to institutional departure, black faculty respond to personal and institutional racism though a form of psychological departure and acts of critical agency, specifically forming external networks, aiming to disprove stereotypes and engaging in service activities. Thus, institutions must be mindful of the full range of responses to the racism that black professors face, not assuming the climate is hospitable simply because faculty are not leaving the institution. Rather, campuses must improve their campus environments through ongoing strategic initiatives focused on cultural change.

EXAMINING SENSE OF BELONGING AND CAMPUS RACIAL DIVERSITY EXPERIENCES AMONG WOMEN OF COLOR IN STEM LIVING-LEARNING PROGRAMS

Living-learning programs can facilitate students' sense of belonging, especially during the early stages of their college experiences. Sense of belonging is a critical factor in the adjustment and persistence of students of color in predominantly white institutions and is strongly connected to a student's campus racial diversity experiences. Many institutions have created living-learning programs to increase women's retention in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. However, little is known about whether these programs facilitate important outcomes for women of color, such as their sense of belonging and campus racial diversity experiences. Using a conceptual framework of learning community practice that identifies inclusion of diversity issues as core principles of practice (Lardner, 2005), this study examined STEM living-learning program participation, overall sense of belonging, interactions with diverse peers, and perceptions of the campus racial climate among racially/ethnically diverse women in STEM majors. Women of color reported lower participation rates in STEM living-learning programs, less strong overall sense of belonging, and more frequent interactions with racially/ethnically diverse peers than did white/Caucasian women. Black/African American women reported less positive perceptions of the campus racial climate than did women from the other racial/ethnic groups. Findings suggest that achieving a sense of belonging to their campus and having positive campus racial climate perceptions are important for women of color in STEM majors that can be facilitated, in part, by STEM living-learning programs. To engage in effective learning community practice, STEM living-learning program educators should consider the needs of racially/ethnically diverse students.

The effects of attending a diverse college

The question of whether there are benefits to be obtained from having a diverse student body is a key issue in the debate over affirmative action. This paper estimates the effects of college racial diversity on post-college earnings, civic behavior, and satisfaction with the college attended. I use the Beginning Postsecondary Students survey, which allows me to control for exposure to racial diversity prior to college. Moreover, I use two techniques from Altonji, Elder, and Taber (2005) to address the issue of selection on unobservables. The first is a sensitivity analysis showing how the coefficient on diversity changes when different values of the correlation are imposed in a system of equations that consists of a selection equation and an outcome equation. The second is estimation based upon an assumption that selection on unobservables equals selection on observables, which, along with the OLS results, gives estimates of bounds on the effect. Single-equation estimates suggest a possible positive effect of diversity on satisfaction with the racial climate at the college attended and a negative effect on community service, but I do not find an effect on other outcomes. Moreover, the estimates are very sensitive to the assumptions made about selection on unobservables.