“Where’s My People?”: An Investigation of the Structure and Content of Black and Latinx College Students’ Ethnic-Racial Identity Narratives

Abstract

As attending college became a normative life experience in the U.S., society developed a cultural narrative about what a “good” college experience looks like. But, for racially minoritized college students, this master narrative often excludes their experiences. Integrating narrative and ethnic-racial identity, the current study investigates how a sample of 11 Black and Latinx students ( M age = 19.73) narrate their lives in college and make meaning of their racial experiences. Participants were prompted to construct their college story as if it were a book with chapters and describe the connections between those chapters. We analyzed students’ college stories and found that they used either chronological or thematic coherence to structure their narratives; this distinction in structure was related to the content of their stories. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of using a racialized college story narrative to understand ethnic-racial identity for minoritized college students.