Negotiating race and racism: Black youth in racially dissonant schools

As more Black youth undergo development in racially dissonant settings it becomes necessary to broaden our knowledge base about the diverse ways that Black youth negotiate race and confront racism across various contexts of socialization. Predominantly White schools are racially dissonant contexts for Black youth; as such, two studies were conducted to explore how Black adolescents negotiate race and racism in predominantly White parochial and independent schools. The first study used a prospective diary design, where quantitative and qualitative data was collected, to examine the relationship between racial stress engagement and psychological well-being for a small sample of Black students in racially dissonant schools. The second study utilized cluster analysis to create profiles that consisted of various dimensions of racial identity and experience with racism for Black students in racially dissonant schools. Results indicated that: (1) there was diversity in racial identity and experience with racism for Black students in predominantly White schools; (2) there was no significant relationship between racial stress engagement and psychological well-being over time for participants in the diary study; and (3) three clusters of Black students in racially dissonant schools emerged based on racial identity dimensions and experiences with racism; these students were described as students who had a distal awareness of race and racism, race and racism minimalists, and students with integrative awareness of race and racism. There were significant differences between the three clusters on their psychological sense of school membership. Findings illustrate that Black youth\u27s negotiation of race and encounters with racism play a critical role in their experience of predominantly White school settings