Racial Authenticity Processes: Evaluations of Authentic Blackness and Self-Esteem

Abstract

Racial authenticity refers to the social evaluation of an individual’s group membership based on their perceived racial similarities to or differences from their racial group. While the criteria for determining racial authenticity may be abstract and mutable, negative outcomes may still occur for individuals based on whether they are perceived as an authentic member of their racial group. Notably, perceptions of racial authenticity may be particularly salient among Black college students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) due to competing behavioral expectations from Black students as well as non-Black students and faculty. The present study contributes to prior research on this topic through a validation and test of a novel measure of racial authenticity defined by one’s perceived racial similarities to their group (racial prototypicality) and their experiences of being mistreated by their racial group due to perceived racial differences (racial othering). Furthermore, the study elucidates racial authentication processes among Black students through an examination of how contextual factors contribute to evaluations of authentic Blackness and the extent to which racial authenticity relates to self-blame and self-esteem. Within the study, a sample of 136 Black PWI students (Mage = 20.27, SD = 4.14; 91.2% female) completed an online questionnaire. A path analysis revealed that Black students who held more negative views about their racial group (low private regard) and who had more friends of a different race experienced more stress from racial othering. Additionally, experiences of racial othering indirectly predicted self-esteem through self-blame coping. These findings have implications for understanding how perceptions of racial authenticity relate to well-being among Black PWI students.