Doing Race in Different Places: Black Racial Cohesion on Black and White College Campuses

Understanding the range of factors that contribute to Black students' success requires scholars to examine resiliency from multifaceted perspectives that include aspects of social competency, social responsibility, and agency. Using a national sample of 242 Black college students, the current study examines the indicators that inform racial cohesion and dissonance at different college contexts, that is, Historically Black Colleges/Universities (HBCU) or Predominately White Institutions (PWI). Exploring these factors has implications for how Black college students perceive and navigate the challenge of balancing personal success and social responsibility. Students at HBCUs were higher in racial cohesion, particularly on the Racial Agency subscale. No statistically significant differences were found on the Psychological Cohesion subscale or on the measure of Black racial dissonance by college context and gender. This suggests that differences in racial cohesion behaviors were neither the result of disparities in emotional connections, nor ambivalent feelings toward Blacks as a whole. Social interactions in high school moderated the relationship between racial cohesion and college contexts. Thus, Black friendships before college may engender stronger racial cohesion, regardless of the college context. Additionally, racial cohesion moderated the inverse relationship between White social interactions and racism stress, implying that student affairs personnel can use community-building strategies to facilitate interracial social interactions on college campuses.