Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The development of a healthy academic identity is in part based in an understanding of the messages and meanings available to students about intellectual and academic performance, expectations and success. The substance of these messages that cast black students as academically and culturally deficient are widely circulated and used to frame ideas about these students. Even today, reserach suggests insufficient cultural capital and poverty as the conditions that produce failure. Yet, one of the most challenging issues is why the achievement gap is the largest among the most affluent students - black middle class students. To better understand the racialized scripts and educational schizophrenia students experience, this paper explores ( via in-depth interviews with black middle class college students) the impact of these experiences and how they inform student behavior, identity, and academic success.