AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITY, EXPERIENCE WITH RACISM, AND MEANING IN LIFE AMONG BLACK COLLEGE STUDENTS

Experience with racism and its relationship to meaning in life (i.e., the degree to which a person feels the world is a safe and caring place), African American identity, and African American acculturation were explored in a sample of Black college students ( N = 48) who attended a predominately White, public, state university in the Northeastern United States. Black men and women who have Black nationalistic ideals and were immersed in Black culture reported more lifetime racist experience than those students who were less immersed in African American culture. As a group, Black women who were under the age of 21 and Black men over 21 reported similar levels of racist experiences while Black women over 21 and Black men under 21 reported similar levels of racist experience. The former group reported experiencing more racism and found these experiences more stressful than the latter group. Black women reported more racist experiences across their lifetimes than other respondents, whereas Black men reported more racism over the past year. Black women reported greater social support from their families than did Black men. Black students who grew up in Black neighborhoods reported greater immersion in Black culture than those students who grew up in White neighborhoods. The confluence of community, family, African American culture, religiosity, and how racist experiences affect the identity development process differently for Black men and women are discussed.

The development of identity themes, internalization or rejection of White/European cultural values, and affirmation of African centered values, have historical origins dating back to the late 16th century when Europeans first enslaved 1 Africans, which led to the American institution of slavery (Akbar, 1996). Africans made use of identity themes in order to survive the physical and psychological terror inflicted upon them in their daily lives (Parham, 1993). Thus African American identity developed under an oppressive regime as enslaved Blacks were coerced into an acculturation process and assimilated to White/European norms and cultural values (Akbar, 1996). Aspects of African American identity exhibit the tension between the incorporation and rejection of White cultural values (Tatum, 1997).
Traditionally, the concept of acculturation is defined as "a special type of diffusion that takes place as a result of sustained contact between two societies, one of which is subordinate to the other" (Ferraro, 1992, pp. 304-305). Previous acculturation models placed western, White, American, middle -class culture in the center, as the dominant group, and measured the distance, or how far, "others" (subordinate groups, such as, Mexican Americans, Asian immigrants, and Native Americans) deviated from this center. Subordinate group members who exhibit dominant group behavior were described as "acculturated." Klonoff ( 1996b, 1998) subverted or deconstructed this concept of acculturation by placing Black culture in the center in their assessment of acculturation. Implicit in the approach of Landrine and Klonoff is that Blacks do not have to assimilate into White culture in order to be "normal." "We applied the acculturation paradigm to African Americans because of (rather than despite) the cultural racism that denies and mocks Black American culture" (Landrine & Klonoff, 1998, p. 3).
Although research has shown that for Black college students, community and family influences, experience with racism, and personality variables all play a role in the 2 identity development process (Harris, 1995;Thompson, Anderson, & Bakeman, 2000), there is not a general consensus on the relationship between acculturation and the identity development process. One conceptual way to view these similar but different constructs is to view African American acculturation as the umbrella and levels of racial identity as the elements that grow and mature underneath the overarching background or context of African American culture (Pope-Davis, Liu, Ledesma-Jones, & Toporek, 1997).
Some scholars have criticized both the acculturation and identity models because they assume, a priori, that a person's Black identity or level of acculturation is the central defining element in the construction of identity (Hoare, 1991;Myers, Speight, Highlen, Cox, Reynolds, Adams, & Hanley, 1991;Reynolds & Pope, 1991 ). Sellers, Chavous, and Cook (1998, p. 11) argue that "African American racial identity literature has not clearly distinguished between whether the individual identifies with being Black and the individual's attitudes and beliefs regarding what it means to be Black." For example, in one study (Ingram, 1989), a sample of Black college students rated gender as their most meaningful self-descriptor.

Gender and Racial Identity
The construction of African American identity is influenced or related to the African American gender socialization process (Brown & Gary, 1987;Chambers, Kambon, Birdsong, Brown, Dixon, & Robbins-Brinson, 1998;Goodstein & Ponterotto, 1997;Harris, 1995;Kimbrough, Molock, & Walton, 1996;Majors & Billson, 1992;Mcnulty, Graham, Ben-Porath, & Stein, 1997;Taylor, Henderson, & Jackson, 1991;Wade, 1996). Chambers, et al (1998) surveyed 400 Black women and 300 Black men who attended 8 historically Black colleges/universities, and examined Africentric cultural 3 identity and its association with stress, anger, grade point average (GPA), self esteem and various psychopathology markers. They found that high African American self consciousness was positively related to higher GP As and self esteem in Black men, but for Black women only self esteem was correlated with GP A. Findings suggested that Black male college students are more likely to struggle with feelings of paranoia while Black female college students are more likely to struggle with obsessive and compulsive thought processes. Carter, et al (1997) found gender differences when examining responses to the Black Racial Identity Attitudes Scale (BRIAS), locus of control, and psychosocial competence. Black men scored higher on pre-encounter stage items (pro White/anti Black) than Black women. The authors suggest that Black men may be more likely to see themselves as "acculturated" individuals, and as having internalized White cultural values. For both men and women, however, there were no significant relationships between BRIAS scores and locus of control or psychosocial competence. Martin and Nagayama-Hall (1992) found that, among Black women, BRIAS encounter stage scores (learning more about Blacks, and weakening of pre-encounter views) were related to external locus of control, a belief in chance and luck, and internalization stage scores (e.g., inner security with Blackness and greater ideological flexibility) were related to internal locus of control. Klonoff and Landrine (2000), using the revised African American Acculturation Scale (AAAS-R), found that Black women scored higher than Black men on six scales: religion, family practice, family values, traditional foods, superstition, and segregation. Black men did not differ from Black women on preference for African American things and inter-racial attitudes. In the total African American 4 acculturation score, 24% of the variance is accounted for by the religiosity/spirituality factor (Klonoff & Landrine, 2000), suggesting that Blacks may derive much meaning in our lives from our spiritual beliefs (Blaine & Crocker, 1995). Although Black students, as well as older Black adults may describe themselves using various concepts based on gender, spiritual values, social class, or academic achievement levels, one factor remains consistent in the Black identity development process and that is the experience with racism (Walters, 1996).
Racism Jones (1972) has described three types of racism: individual, institutional, and cultural. He writes, "[I]ndividual racism ... suggests a belief in the superiority of one's own race over another, and the behavioral enactments that maintain those superior and inferior positions," and "institutional racism, [is] the conscious manipulation of institutions to achieve racist objectives" (p. 5). Cultural racism is defined as "the individual and institutional expression of the superiority of one race's cultural heritage over that of another race" (p. 6). Cultural racism and individual racism are the primary forms of racism explored in this dissertation. Jones (1972, p. 6) offers this eloquent description of the implications of cultural racism: It is cultural racism that has been most transparent to the eyes of American race-relation analysts. It is a matter of cultural racism when the achievements of a race of people are fully ignored in education. It is a matter of cultural racism when the expression of cultural differences is unrewarded or is interpreted negatively. It is not just black people who have been victimized by the cultural melting-pot myth, but all ethnic 5 minorities. White Western-European religion, music, philosophy, law, politics, economics, morality, science, and medicine are all without question considered to be the best in the world.
Experience with cultural racism, as well as individual racism, is a unique and salient experience for African Americans as documented in both empirical research ( e.g., Utsey & Ponterotto, 1996) and innumerable reports of personal experience. Landrine and Klonoff (1996a) found that 98 percent of 153 African American participants surveyed had experienced some type of racial discrimination in the past year. "One third of the sample reported being picked on, hit, shoved, or threatened with harm, and nearly half of the sample reported being called a racist name" (p. 149). Moreover, "depression, tension, and rage about racism is the single most common problem presented by African Americans in psychotherapy" (National Institute of Mental Health, as cited by Landrine & Klonoff, 1996a, p. 145). Sanders- Thompson ( 1996) found, within a sample of 114 females and 82 African American male college students, all of whom attended a predominately White university, that one third had experienced a racist event in the past six months. These students tended to have intrusive memories and exhibit avoidance symptoms following these experiences. Experiencing racism is a negative life event.
Janoff-Bulman (1989) has suggested that three central issues are raised when people face a negative life event: benevolence of the world ... "To what extent do good versus bad events occur in the world?" ( p. 117); meaningfulness of the world ... "once individuals have a sense of the extent to which good versus bad outcomes occur, the 6 question of how these outcomes are distributed then arises" (p. 118); and worthiness of self ... "certain individuals may believe that the world is very malevolent" (p. 119).
Janoff-Bulman created a W,2rld_~ssumptions Scale using these three constructs to ,,,/~~~1 ,'/ .;, ,,., explore a person's reaction to traumatic experiences. She posits that: The coping task facing victims is largely a difficult cognitive dilemma; they must integrate the data of their dramatic, negative experience and their prior assumptions, which cannot readily assimilate the new information. Victims must rework the new data so as to make it fit and thereby maintain their old assumptions, or they must revise their old assumptions in a way that precludes the breakdown of the entire system and allows them to perceive the world as wholly threatening (Janoff-Bulman, 1989, p. 121).
Using Janoff-Bulman's scale, Calhoun and Cann (1994) found, in a sample of73 White\ and 65 Black college students, that Black college students "saw the world, personal or general, as less benevolent and less lucky" than White students. Black students also / reported a higher perceived self worth than White students. The researchers attributed this latter finding to the fact that Black students who attend White colleges might feel a greater sense of accomplishment than White students

Racial Identity and Perceived Racism as a Life Stressor
Racial identity researchers (Helms, 198711990, Cross, 1971) acknowledge that experiencing racism is a factor in the identity development process but its impact on this process and how it might impact world view ( or meaning in life) remains unclear.
In the extreme, encountering a racist experience may be life threatening. Racist experiences are negative life events, but how do Black college students cope with such events?
Physiological measures of distress that include exposure to racist stimuli have shown elevations in heart rate activity among Black college students and Black adults (Anderson, 1989;Sutherland andHarrell, 1986, as cited in Clark, Anderson, Clark, &Williams, 1999), and increased blood pressure among Black students (Armstead, Lawler, Gordon, Cross & Gibbons, 1989, as cited in Sanders- Thompson, 1996). Experiencing racial stressors has been shown to impact mental health functioning of Blacks as well as ' I other people of color (see Clark, et al, 1999 for comprehensive review;Priest, 1991 )/ The role of racial identity in the interpretation students made following racist experiences is unclear. Sanders- Thompson ( 1996) found no support for the hypothesis "that racial identification mediated the impact of the experience with racism" (p. 231 ), but suggested that racial identity might "influence [the] attributions made following experiences of racism" as well as shape the coping responses to such experiences (p. 231 ). Neville, Heppner, and Wang (1997) found that Black college students' level of racial identity 8 does mediate the coping response to racist experiences. These researchers found that students with pro-Black and anti-White attitudes tended to use "avoidant and suppressive coping styles" (p. 309). Shelton and Sellers (2000) showed that the centrality of racial identity ( i.e., the degree to which one holds his or her Black identity as a main descriptor of one's self) plays a role in how a person interprets their interaction with others or with ambiguous social situations. In their study, Black college students who scored higher on race centrality attributed racial prejudice to White professors but not to Black professors. Sellers, Chavous, & Cooke ( 1998) found that "race centrality moderates the relationship between ideology and academic performance such that assimilation and nationalist ideologies were negatively associated with GPA and a minority ideology was positively associated with GP A for students who scored high on racial centrality" (p. 8). Research suggests that it is not only being a part of a Black group which shapes one's acculturation ,·~> level or racial identity but how the individual identifies and internalizes the norms, beliefs, and attitudes held by their cultural or social group (Carter, Sbrocco, & Carter, 1996;Feagin, Vara, & Imani, 1996;Kamya, 1997;Sidanius, Pratto, & Rabinowitz, 1994;Tatum, 1997). Family members, members of the wider Black community (Sanders - Thompson, 1994 ), religious ideals (Brookins, 1994) and geographic environment (Levant, Majors, & Kelley, 1998) appear to play a strong role in Black identity development.
Several researchers have suggested that level of social support serves as a buffer or mediator role in the experience of racism and coping with daily stressors of being a Black person living in America (Brown & Gary, 1987). Kimbrough, Molock and Walton (1996) found that Black students who felt less supported by their families and 9 .,,, friends were more likely to show increased suicide ideation and higher levels of depression. Socio-economic status or social class has shown no relationship to Black identity (Carter & Helms, 1988) or African American acculturation ( Klonoff & Landrine, 1998).
In summary, evidence supports the conclusion that level of racial identity and \ social support relate to how Black college students cope with their experiences ofracism.
This exploratory study of a small convenience sample of Black students in a primarily White university was designed to answer the following questions: Classrooms in the URI Multicultural Center or rooms in other parts of campus were used for survey administration. Student groups were read a description about the study (Appendix C), and then completed the surveys. Participants were informed that the surveys would take an hour of their time but that they could leave at any time.
Participants received a packet of information that included a demographic questionnaire, a cover letter explaining the study, consent form (see Appendix B) and all measures .   (Sellers, et al, p. 808, 1997). Separate scores can be calculated for each of the subscales.
World Assumptions Scale (WAS). The World Assumptions Scale, used here to operationalize "meaning in life" has undergone several phases of construction with items created which tap into 8 assumptions about the world: ( 1) benevolence of the world, (2) benevolence of people, (3) justice, ( 4) controllability, (5) randomness, (6) self worth, (7) self -controllability, and (8)  White feelings" (Helms & Parham, 1984, p. 2). Test -retest reliabilities for the full BRIAS have been reported to be in the range of .60 to .80. Parham and Helms (1985) reported an internal consistency statistic of. 71 for internalization. Participants respond to each item on a 5 point Likert-type scale from Strongly Disagree (1) Landrine and Klonoff, (1996a) and cross validated , measures the frequency of racist events experienced during the past year and across a person's lifetime. It also measures how stressful that event was for the person. A copy of the SRE is shown in Appendix H. One of the items is problematic in that it asks about several different kinds of experience within one item, "How many times have you been made fun of, picked on, pushed, shoved, hit or threatened with harm because you are Black?" Although this item will be maintained on the SRE, I have created three additional items to untangle the various forms of abuse: "made fun of and picked on"; "pushed and shoved or hit"; "threatened with harm." Internal consistency reliabilities were reported as .95 for recent racist events, .95 for lifetime racist events, and .94 for appraised events. Split-half reliabilities were also high, .93 for recent, .91 for lifetime, and .91 for appraised racist events. Participants respond to each item on a 6 point Likert-type scale from "Never happened to you (1) to Happened almost all of the time (6)". Participants respond twice to the item concerning a racist event (for example, "How many times have you been treated unfairly by neighbors because you are Black?") once for the past year and secondly, for across their entire lifetime, and they offer a stress appraisal of the event with scores ranging from Not at all (1) to Extremely (6). Subscale scores calculated for past year frequency of racist events range from 20 to 120; lifetime frequency scores range from 20 to 120; and stress appraisal scores range from 19 to 114. Higher scale scores represent greater scale endorsement of recent, lifetime, and high stress appraisal of racist events. The SRE can be found in Appendix H.
Demographic Questionnaire. A general information sheet was created which asked about age, gender, year in school, self identity, and ancestral heritage. Other items asked about mother and father's occupation, type of environment or neighborhood students grew up in, and items relating to experiencing racism in classrooms, and dormitories, black student group involvement, and level of social support from families, friends and co-workers. This can be found in Appendix D.
Open Ended Questions. Each respondent was asked to share "any thoughts or feelings [they] may have about any part of this survey or your experience as an African American College student." This item may be found in Appendix I.

Item Additions and Scale Revisions All items shown in Appendices E through H
are the same as in the published measures except for the addition of three items on the SRE (as noted above) and inclusion of the BRIAS internalization stage scale at the end of the MIBI. All Likert -type scales point in the same direction from strongly disagree to strongly agree, or from lesser degree to greater degree.

Data Cleaning
Chapter Three

Results
Missing data from all surveys were replaced using a multiple regression analysis method. For example, if an item on AAAS-R scale was missing than that score's value was found by using other known survey items as predictors (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1989).
Out of the 9888 variables entered, fewer than .01 % were missing. The majority of those which were missing (71 % ) were from the Schedule of Racist Events (SRE).
All variables were assessed for skewness and kurtosis. Skewness refers to the how the scores pile up on either side of the distribution and kurtosis refers to overall shape of the distribution. Ideally, all statistical analyses are based on the assumption of normality. Variables with skewness scores greater than +2 or -2 and with kurtosis scores greater than 3 were logarithmetically transformed (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1989).
Logarithmetic transformation is a commonly used data analysis tool (Tabachnick and Fidell, 1989) so that variables reach assumptions of normality. Two variables, one on the MIBI-private regard scale "I am happy that I am Black" and one variable on SRE, "How many times have you been made fun of picked on, pushed, shoved hit or threatened with harm because you are Black?", which were both negatively skewed, were improved significantly after logarithmetic transformation.

Gender Comparisons
The first research question asked was, "How do Black women and Black men compare on Black identity, "meaning in life", African American acculturation, and experience with racism? Means and standard deviations for women and men on all 19 survey scales are reported in Table 1. The only statistically significant difference between women and men across all survey scales were found on the African American Acculturation Scale -Revised (AAAS-R). A one-way ANOV A exploring gender groups across all the acculturation scales was computed. Black women ( M = 16.46) were found to hold stronger beliefs in cultural superstitions than Black men ( M = 12.77), E (1, 45) = 4.14, 12 <. 05.
A series of one-way ANOV As were computed to explore gender differences on the demographic questionnaire self-report items. The mean responses of women and men are shown in Table 2. Black women (M = 6.42) self reported feeling significantly more social support from their families than did Black men (M = 5.77), F ( 1, 47) = 3.625, 12 < .05. There were no significant gender differences in reports ofracism in the classroom or dorm, social support from friends, and involvement in Black campus groups. In describing "the future of Black-White race relations in America within the next 10 years" women reported feeling more negative about future race relations than did men (16 women compared to 12 men), while in the combined "good to excellent" category, there were 10 women and 10 men.

Correlations Among the Measures
Inter-correlations among the measures were obtained for women and men separately.
These data are shown in Tables 3 and 4. All reported correlations are statistically significant, alpha 12 = less than or equal to .05.

Women
Black women's (I= .66) Nationalist ideology sub-scale score of the Multidimensional Black Inventory (MIBI) related to their total African American acculturation score. This data is shown in Table 3. Black women's total African American acculturation score related to their MIBI centrality scale score ( r = .45) while her humanist scale score inversely related to it(!:= -.48). Black women's religious beliefs, on the African American acculturation scale, correlated with how safe they felt in their worlds ( r = .40), and related to her Benevolence scale score ( e.g., how good she felt about her world) ( r = .45). Black women's Nationalist ideology score ( r = .42) related to her lifetime racist event score while their humanist score ( r = -.51) inversely related to lifetime racist event score. Women's recent racism ( r = .53) and lifetime racism ( r = .57) related to their total African American acculturation score.

Men
Black men's Nationalist ideology sub-scale score of the Multidimensional Black Inventory (MIBI) ( r = .56) related to their total African American acculturation score.
Black men's centrality score ( r = .43) related to how safe (e.g., Meaningfulness) he felt in his world. This data is shown in Table 4. Black men's religious beliefs score ( r = .57) correlated with how safe they felt in their worlds. Black men's inter-racial attitudes ( r = -.42) inversely related to benevolence. Black mens' health belief ( r = .59) and his belief in cultural superstitions ( r = .49) related to his self worth scale score.
Black men showed an inverse correlation between recent racism (e.g, past year) ( r = -.45) and benevolence. Black men's assimilation sub-scale score inversely related to his recent racism (r = -.51) and lifetime racist event score (r = -.46). This inverse relationship was also found between Black men's humanist scale scores with recent racist event (r = -.44) and lifetime racist event score (r = -.55). Black men's ( r = .45) recent racism related to their total African American acculturation score. grew up in mostly other People of Color neighborhoods, and 3 preferred not to answer.
As can be seen in Table 5, growing up in a White neighborhood was inversely correlated with the total African American acculturation score ( r = -.3 7 ) while growing up in a Black neighborhood ( r = .42 ) correlated positively with the total acculturation score. Growing up in a White neighborhood was inversely correlated with the Nationalistic ideology sub-scale of the MIBI, (I= -.29) while growing up in a Black neighborhood was positively correlated with a Nationalistic perspective (r = .30).

Ethnic Comparisons
Five ethnic group categories based on students' written responses about their ethnicity, were created: Caribbean (n = 15), Black (n = 14), Cape Verdean (n = 12), Biracial/Black ( e.g., Bi-racial/Blacks are those students who self identified as being Black and Native American, or Black and Jamaican, and so forth) (n = 5), and Biracial/ Black and White (n = 2). For the Caribbean ethnicity group, I combined Jamaicans,

Analysis of Counter-balanced Group Survey Administration
To explore practice or priming effects, a one-way ANOV A was used to compare the groups who took the surveys in different orders across all survey scales. The group that first completed the African American Acculturation Scale followed by the World  (2000), Sellers et al, (1997)] have conceptualized aspects of Black identity and African American acculturation as separate constructs, this study suggests that embracing a Black nationalistic identity ( e.g., holding the view "that emphasizes the importance and uniqueness of being of African descent" (p. 806, Sellers, et al, 1997) correlates with being immersed in African American culture as operationalized by Landrine and Klonoff (1996b). Pope-Davis, et al (1997) reported a similar finding using Helm's (1989) Black Racial Identity immersion scale and an earlier version of the African American Acculturation Scale (Landrine and Klonoff, 1994 As Black women get older they appear to grow more into African American culture while this was not true for the Black men in the present sample. The women and men reported similar levels of racist experience, but Black women reported them as more stressful than men. Black men may be reluctant to share how stressful these racist experiences are for them. They may not want to admit vulnerability to racism. Another equally plausible interpretation is that Black women do find these racist experiences as more stressful and that the reporting of these stress appraisals accurately reflect real gender differences. Mumford (1994) provides this explanation as to why Black women might feel that racism is more stressful due to the intersections of experiencing racism Despite their racist experiences, both women and men felt that the future of Black -White relations in America was good.

Black Identity is Fluid and Dynamic
Researchers often treat and study identity as a fixed element of the self but identity is not static; it is fluid. It changes in various social and psychological contexts.
This statement is supported by the finding that those respondents who completed the survey in one order scored differently than those whose survey materials were in a different order. There were differences between scores on the oppressed minority scale.
The oppressed minority scale is part of the Ideology sub-scale of the MIBI, which ascertains the degree to which an individual believes that Blacks as a group feel they are oppressed in American society. Students who first completed the AAAS-R and then the WAS felt that they were more oppressed than students who first completed the WAS and then the AAAS-R. After completing the AAAS-R, students may have thought about their African American culture and then when they responded to the WAS they were primed to think about how African American culture related to their meaning in life. Thus, when students thought about African American culture they recalled their experience as an oppressed minority in American society. This was the only difference found between counter-balanced survey groups. Please answer all the questions. Mark the response that best matches your feelings or beliefs about the question or statement.

Limitations of this study
All responses will remain confidential and anonymous. Please do not write your name anywhere on the surveys or scoring sheets or on any page in this packet. Your consent to participate will be assumed if you complete and return the surveys.
There are 162 questions in the surveys, it will take you approximately 45 to 60 minutes to complete them. I will answer any questions you have.
If any questions or issues come up for you after taking the survey, please contact me, Brian Ragsdale at (603)  You understand that you will be asked a series of questions about your personal feelings and beliefs, and issues relating to your racial/ethnic background, religiosity and/or spirituality. There are no foreseeable risks or benefits for you but others in the future may benefit from your participation.
If you choose to participate, you may withdraw from the study at any time. Your part in this study is confidential and anonymous.
Concerns about any aspect of this study may be referred to Brian Ragsdale at (603)

7.
What is the occupation of your mother?

8.
What is the occupation of your father? 9.

10.
How spiritual or religious do you consider yourself to be? (Circle One only) Not at All 1 2 3 4 Very 5

11.
First, find below the type of environment you grew up in (urban, suburban, or rural

2.
In general, being Black is an important 2 3 part of my self-image.

3.
My destiny is tied to the destiny 2 3 of other Black people.

4.
Being Black is unimportant to my sense 2 3 of what kind of person I am.

5.
I have a strong sense of belonging to 2 3 Black people.

6.
Being Black is an important reflection 2 3 of who I am.

7.
Being Black is not a major factor in my social I 2 3 relationships.

56.
I involve myself in causes that will help 2 3 4 5 all oppressed people.

57.
A person's race does not influence how 2 3 4 5 comfortable I feel when I am with her or him.

58.
I feel good about being Black, but do not 2 3 4 5 limit myself to Black activities.

59.
I believe that certain aspects of "the Black 2 3 4 5 experience" apply to me, and others do not.

60.
I involve myself in social action and political l 2 3 4 5 groups even if there are no other Blacks involved.

62.
I believe that I have many strengths because I 2 3 4 5 I am Black.

64.
A person's race has little to do with 2 3 4 5 whether or not he or she is a good person.

65.
I believe that a Black person can be close 2 3 4 5 friends with a White person.
I have a positive attitude about myself 2 3 4 5 because I am Black.

Beliefs and Attitudes Survey
Below are some beliefs and attitudes about religion, families, racism, Black people, White people, and health. Please tell us how much you personally agree or disagree with these beliefs and attitudes by circling a number. There are no right or wrong answers, we simply want to know your views and beliefs.

47.
A child should not be allowed to call a 2 3 4 5 6 7 grown woman by her first name, "Alice" .. The child should be taught to call her "Miss Alice".

World Assumptions Scale
Using the scale below, please select the number that indicates how much you agree or disagree with each statement. Please answer honestly. Thanks. "I want to make it clear that I am not against segregation. I would be happier person ifl didn't live or associate with White people. If we could have all the things-(money, technology, etc.) as Whites I would prefer not to know them. What do we get from them anyway? All they do (white society) is steal our stuff. So if in anyway I led you to believe in this survey that I liked being a part of society I am sorry. Gimme and my people my 40 acres and a mule and let us take over this place. "Separate but equal" is good. "Sep-ar-ate but e-qual" has a ring to it. Peace.
--21 year old, Black woman, Black environment 60% • I strongly believe that it is important to educate children ( our children) in ways that our grandparents were educated. Ways of the old-school. For example, don't call an older person by their first name. Sometimes, I feel that Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and others slave and died for nothing because some blacks have lost prospectives and a lot of time, they have forgotten where they came from.
--22 year old, Black woman, White environment 90% To be honest most white folk are racist against blacks, so you see the system racism, but most whites dont have the guts to tell me a racist remarK to my face. Free all political prisoners so we can make a change. BLACK POWER. FOREVER 4 -LIFE MUCH LOVE.
--20 year old, Black man, Black environment 60% "Well Life as of now is like a roller coaster. There's good and Bad people in every culture race and ethnicity. It all depends where you come from and your values and mores. I am just happy the way I am a black woman-proud to be one! Even though alot of people "cape verdeans" do not "claim" themselves as "Black." That does not mean that the rest ofus think that way!. Thanks.
--20 year old, Black woman, Black environment 75% As a light skinned black man I am given many more chances than darker skinned peers. One thing I do notice is that some blacks show whites negativity, this doesn't help our cause. Racism is hate and ignorance the way to finally stop it is to show love and to educate does that need it. Also if we stopped being victims we would help our cause tremendously. I know that we did not invent racism or that it is our fault where we are in America. Sure we have to work 3 to 4 times harder than the next man to get to the same place, but we are black and can do it. The faster we realize this the faster we will end racism. We need to get power and power is never given it is earned. Some of the questions were hard because they are directed specifically towards an African American, and I do not consider myself an African American. My experiences have been a learning one, a confusing one and a somewhat good one.
--20 year old, Black man, Black environment 45% I feel that if I can go to college, that it is a privilege. Many African Americans don't get the chance to go to college. That's why most of the colleges in the U.S. are predominately White. I'm used to going to predominately White high schools, but I wish more blacks would be in school. Sometimes, as an African American college student, I feel the segregation of college. All you see is white students everyday but you don't see many black students. I think that African American students need to see more students of their race on campus.
--18 year old, Black man, Black environment 15% Sometimes I feel awkward being the only black person in my class. I feel that some students discriminate against me. They don't include me in group discussions and seem not to care about my opinions. I've had one experience where this has happened to me and it made me feel really bad.
What I don't understand about this survey was why did you ask questions "Did you ever take a bath with a sibling, when you were young? I don't understand what that has to do with this survey." --19 year old, Black woman, Black environment 65% Personal I don't think that we have many black people that even go to URI. I don't know if that's a mistake or what. Half of the campus of black people play sport for the school and that shouldn't make up 90% of our black population.
--21 year old, Black woman, Black environment 70% I really do not care much about racists and racism. I am a realist, I live according to realities. I have not seen much racism on campus. It exists; I resent it. But the reality is that is there. I, for one, try to view who a person is and not how they look.
--21 year old, Black man, Black environment 100% Sometimes people ask me ifl'm Black, I say no, that I'm Cape Verdean, and that's all I consider myself to be.
--20 year old, Black woman, Black environment 70% I feel that being an African American college student is hard. I feel that many teachers treat me differently due to the fact that I am black. I think they look at me and automatically assume that I come from the qhetto and that I can't do the work assigned in class. This angers me. They don't even know me but they have judged me because of the color of my skin. It is also very hard to be here because there are not many black students. So I really don't have many people to relate too or speak with. My whole life I've lived and grown up around white people. A good majority of my friends are white. But here it's like some of the people have never seen a black person let alone friends with one. So I often get those stupid frequently asked questions about why my hair feels the way it does or why one side of my hand is white etc ... Many dumb questions such as those plaque me during the day. I deal with them and then go on my way. I guess you could say I never expected it to be this way. My parents always told me that racism is alive and well in 1999. I guess in a way I didn't want to believe it was true. But being here has proved my parents are right. And shows me that my worst nightmare has come true. It's a shame that after all these years we are not still considered equal.
--18 year old, Black woman, Black environment 10% There is only one thing that I want to say. I am of mixed descent (African American, Native American, Portugese, English, and Irish) and I feel that it has had a lot to do with the reason why I have not experienced a lot of racism myself. I feel people are not really sure what my background is by just looking at me since the question of what my heritage is is a recurring question that I constantly receive. And although I can not always relate to blacks that have experienced racism, I can empathize with them because my father is a black man and I have seen racism happen to him and also due to my parents interracial marriage. My last point is that the only way to true equality in this world is for everyone to be at peace with themselves. It starts in the heart, and only then, when all people love who they are, will we achieve true equality.
--19 year old, Black women, White environment 85% Being Cape Verdean there are things that I can relate to with Blacks and there once those that I do not. That is why this this survey was confusing. Also I was born and raised in a different country. i've been here ten years and haven't really begun experiencing such things about six, seven years.
--20 year old, Black man, Other people of color 75% I felt this was a bit long but definately worthwhile. I feel like I've experienced the goods and bads that everyone experiences in college.
--23 year old, Black woman, Black 50% I thought this survey was very thought provoking. Most of the questions I answered help me realized how many times I've been wrongly treated as a Black man and person. There is one experience that stands out in my college years. Recently, I was passed over a position that I've been working hard to get. I'm not sure if it's because I'm black or I didn't have enough experience. Now that I think about it. I do have enough experiences. They had an interview for the manager's position but I was not invited to attend their interview session. When I think about it, I'm the only African American working at the URI Dining Services Warehouse. I don't think experience had to do anything with this situation, I think it's because I'm black and they can't deal with it!! --22 year old, Black man, Black 70% Completing this survey caused me to reflect on a number of race related college experiences. In my opinion, I have experienced more racial instances in this university setting than I have in my entire life. Yet, it is the connection with my ancestral roots that has permitted me to survive in this racist institution and society-at-large.
--29 year old, Black woman, Black 95% I personally have not been affected directly by racial comments or actions but I know others who have. Since I've been here, the football team (black members) got in a fight with a white fraternity, A white person pissed on a Black DJ at Midnight Madness among racial slurs of "Jump Monkey Jump" etc. (to the Basketball players) and the student newspaper printed a racial cartoon that offended many black students on campus and there was a big controversy about it.
--21 year old, Black man, White 90% I am proud to be an African/Black American student. I believe it makes me stronger person. All of the misconception that people have aboui black people makes me want to thrive to prove them wrong. Maybe I have not been effected too badly being black, but my mother has and my father has etc. etc. and if they were treated differently them my life probably would have been totally different than it is today. I also feel it is not only the white race which is holding us down but blacks themselves. It is sad to see that we have blacks preaching how bad the black/ African American race is. My only problem on this survey is that it reflects, in a way, my experience as an African American college student. I usually identify as having mixed ancestry or as simply being half black, but my skin and my admission that I am half black act as precipitators for a king of one drop rule to into effect. For example, URI has me listed on the directory as black non-hispanic even though I wrote the essay on being biracial and identified as biracial on the application. It does not really bother me to be categorized as only black because I would never categorize myself as white. When I have a choice between choosing only white and black, I always choose black. I cannot deny it, nor would I ever want to. I checked "yes" to question number 4 because I feel I do self identify as Black, just to a different degree than other people might. It is just sometimes I feel like I am being forced to identify myself via the so-called "one drop rule", and do deny, half of my ancestry. But I am a descendent of slaves, and so when I comes right down to it, I would of course identify as black.
--21 year old, Black wman, White 80% It was very hard getting used to a white institution. But now I have learned to deal with it and tum it into something positive. It is very upsetting when I raise my hands in my class and don't get called upon, or when I miss a class and my absence is noticed more than other people, or the fact that I have to work harder than the average white student, and that the white student usually have everything paid for by their families-it's not fair.
--21 year old, Black woman, White 80% My experience as a black college student have had significant impact on my perceptions of racism and my personal development. I think being called a "nigger" in college at U. Wis-Madison, on more than one occasion impacted my self esteem and contributed to increased anger in general. It's taken years for me to not see the world in black and white terms and myself in none black and white racist ways. Being able to appreciate my size and beauty has been a major challenge. Recently coming out as a lesbian has also impacted my comfort with black people and has contributed to increased distance between myself and the black community at large. There is still a lot of homophobia and lack of tolerance.
--29 year old, Black woman, White 90% In answering some of the questions, I'd rather consider myself blessed rather than lucky. I feel that God gives us experiences as lessons to learn even when they are "bad" or considered misfortune (i.e., jail, death of a loved one). There is a reason behind everything, although we may not know the reason. As far as being black, I am very glad to have been born in the skin, I'm in! I think we as black people have been victimized, but our task is to rise above that, by putting our very best into the creativity and talent God has given us. Once we realize the power we have and learn to live by our own standards and not white people's (or dominant race's) we will move forward and perservere.
--23 year old, Black woman, Black 90% My experience as a African college student is a challenge for me because I have traveled a long way from home to have a higher and better education. Sometimes it is very difficult sitting in a classroom and being the only black student. This makes me very uncomfortable and I try my best to do the best I can in class so I will not be looked down because of my color. I feel bad that people don't make an attempt to get to know me as an individual, rather they categorize me as one of the black girls. Sometimes it is hard to share my opinion in class because I am afraid white students will make a comment about what I say or laugh at me. I am mostly to my self in class because I don't want to initiate a conversation with someone and they will look at me in a way as to "leave me alone.
--21 year old, Black woman, White 70% For the most part my college experience has been very positive. There have been a couple of very ignorant students, that really just didn't know. As far as teachers, advisers, and TA's go, they have all been extremely helpful to me. Professors whether white or black have tried to guide me on the most productive path.
--21 year old, Black woman, Other people of color 55% Some of the questions were difficult to answer because the questions could be answer in many ways depending on the situations one was place in. --31 year old, Black man, Black 75% I think that people today are being lulled to sleep with the thought that racism doesn't exist anymore, when the fact is that racism is worse today than ever before. It gets harder and harder everyday to live in this society as a black person or minority. Slavery is getting more frequent and worse than before and no one seems to care. If we don't do anything about these issues history will repeat itself!!! --20 year old, Black man, Black 70%  How much social support from friends? 6.08 5.36 How much social support from family? 6.42 5.77 How much social support from co-workers/peers? 4.88 4.14 Note: Scores on all items range from "l" not at all to "5 or 7" very/alot/strong involvement. Standard deviations ranged from .76 to 2.08.  -.32 ___ c; .27 -0 .48* 1.00