Person:

de Novais, Janine

In this paper we bring together the literatures on frame analysis, the meaning of race, and campus racial climate to analyze the race frames—lenses through which individuals understand the role of race in society—held by white students attending elite US universities. For most, the elite university experience coincides with a strengthening or emergence of the diversity frame, which emphasizes the positive benefits of cultural diversity. Still, many also hold a colorblind frame, which sees race groups as equivalent and racial identities as insignificant. We highlight the ambivalence these divergent frames create for student perspectives on affirmative action and interracial contact on campus. Our findings demonstrate the mutability of race frames, and we highlight the impact institutions may have on individuals’ race frames. The paper is based on in-depth interviews with 47 US-born white undergraduates attending Brown University and Harvard University.

Sociological evidence consistently demonstrates that racial progress coexists with persistent racial inequality in American society. Recently, increased evidence of police brutality against black citizens, as well as the 2016 presidential election, clearly confirms that, even in the wake of the Obama era, racial conflict plagues American democracy. There is a widely held consensus that college is an optimal time to engage American undergraduates with the challenges and possibilities of the country’s racial diversity. With that in mind, I explored whether college classrooms, in particular, might be optimal spaces for this engagement. I investigated the experience of undergraduates at a private, selective university, to ask how classroom experiences in courses on race might influence students’ understanding of race, if at all. I found that, drawing from the academic grounding that the classroom provided, students displayed increased capacity to engage with one another in intellectually courageous and empathetic ways. Further, I found that students’ understandings of race became more complex and more self-authored. I call this process—linking classroom dynamics to learning about race—brave community.