Critical race theory, racial microaggressions, and campus racial climate: The experiences of African American college students

Journal of Negro Education, The, Winter 2000 by Solorzano, Daniel, Ceja, Miguel, Yosso, Tara

Participants The study participants consisted of a group of African American students who were attending three elite, predominantly White, Research I universities (two public and one private) in the United States. Thirty-four African American students (18 females, 16 males) participated in 10 focus groups that were convened on the campuses of each institution. Instrumentation The focus group interviews covered seven areas of inquiry: (1) the types of racial discrimination experienced by students; (2) how students responded to racial discrimination;

(3) how racial discrimination affected the students, including their ability to perform academically;

(4) the advantages of having a critical mass of African American students on campus; (5) whether or not the racial climate for African American students had improved or worsened on the students' campuses in the past few years;

(6) whether or not the participants would recommend their college to other African American students; and

(7) advice on how better to conduct the study. Procedures

The focus groups did not represent a random student sample. Focus group participants were recruited using a purposive sampling technique, defined as "a procedure by which researchers select a subject or subjects based on predetermined criteria about the extent to which the selected subjects could contribute to the research study" (Vaughn, Schumm, & Singagub, 1996, p. 58). All focus group conversations were tape-recorded with the permission of the participants, and transcripts were made of each taped focus group. Additionally, extensive field notes, research memos, and information from debriefing meetings were compiled for each focus group. The transcripts were later coded and subjected to a thematic analysis.

Data Analysis We used a grounded theory approach to investigate the concepts of racial microaggressions and collegiate racial climate. Specifically, we analyzed the transcripts, research memos, and field notes by immersing ourselves in the data and systematically analyzing the data for thematic patterns (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). This was accomplished by:

(1) identifying the types of, reactions to, and effects of racial microaggressions;

(2) determining whether patterns could be found in the types of, responses to, and effects of racial microaggressions;

(3) deciding if certain types of, responses to, and effects of racial microaggressions could be collapsed into similar categories; and

(4) finding examples of transcribed text that illustrate the different types of, reactions to, and effects of racial microaggressions.

REsuLTs The following sections describe our findings from the focus group data and offer some general comments on how the racialized context of the college campus leads to a negative and marginalized perception of African Americans students. Figure I shows the relationship between racial microaggressions and campus racial climate. Using Figure I as a guide, we examine the different types of racial microaggressions that take place in academic and social spaces at the postsecondary level. Second, we explore the effects racial microaggressions have on African American students. Third, we describe the counter-spaces African American students create to challenge the racial microaggressions they face. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for the study of racial climate on the college campus.