Am I Black Enough? An Examination of the Importance of Racial Identity and Black Students’ Sense of Belonging to their Racial Group Open Access

Abstract

Only a few studies examine the relationship between sense of belonging to a racial group and its relation to racial identity of Black individuals. In this paper, I examine how sense of belonging to a racial group is related to an individual’s behavior and the importance of their racial identity to their self-concept. Using qualitative and quantitative data from a survey of 21 Black undergraduate students, I find a positive but not significant relationship between Black students’ sense of belonging to their racial group and how importance their race is to their self-concept. The results suggest that Black students do feel a strong sense of belonging to their racial group and engage in race-related behaviors to feel a sense of belonging when with other Black individuals. Black students engage in these behaviors for at least two reasons: to defend their racial identity and their feelings of not being enough.

Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….2

Research Gap…….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3

Background………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..3

Research Questions……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7

Methods…….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8

Results……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….10

Discussion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..16

Conclusion…….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………19

Tables………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………22

Appendices………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………26

References…….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………35

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Sociology
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	African American Studies Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
Keyword	sense of belonging racial identity
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Dr. Cassidy Puckett, Emory University
Committee Members	Dr. Cathryn Johnson, Emory University Dr. Jessica Stewart, Emory University

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