Coping with racism : exploring the experiences of the post-1994 generation of black students at a historically whites-only university in South Africa

Abstract

Reported experiences of Black students appear to bear evidence that racism can be manifested in a number of ways and across different experiential dimensions, namely institutional, individual, or internal dimensions. This research study focuses on how Black students cope with institutional racism and overt acts of racism at a historically Whites-only university. Institutionally, racism persists systemically throughout the housing, education, judicial, employment, and healthcare systems in South Africa. By contrast, individual racism consists of social avoidance and social exclusion, which can be explained as the attitudes and beliefs held against minorities, in the form of microaggressions. The aim of this study was to explore how the post-1994 generation of Black students copes with racism. In light of the aim of the study, social stress theory is the lens through which the findings were interpreted. The social stress theory suggests that due to individuals’ disadvantaged social standing, they have an increased probability of being exposed to stressors. Six Black students were interviewed so that they could share their experiences of racism and how they coped, using semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis (TA) was used as the method of data analysis to elucidate these experiences. The findings show that Black students experience overt acts of racism and institutional racism. Six themes of coping mechanisms were identified: academic determination, boldness, physically and emotionally escaping, faith, support, and inclusion. Fundamentally, the findings demonstrate that Black students adopt adaptive and maladaptive means of coping with their experiences of racism.