The Use of Cyberbonding Play to Navigate Antiblack Racism at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

Abstract

In the post-segregationist era, Black college students experienced historically white, and predominately white institutions’ ecologies as hostile, unwelcoming and psychologically violent. Today, similar reifications of antiblack racism actively compromise how this demographic thrives, but in purposeful nuanced ways that unfurl as diminished resource allocation, curriculum erasure or assumptions of being unintelligent. This qualitative comparative case study examines how seven Black men collegians experience a sense of belonging by use of cyberbonding play to navigate antiblack racism at a Hispanic-serving Institution. Findings indicated participants’ applied knowledge learned during game interactions to avert antiblack racism and create communal spaces. As a result, increasingly participants actively engaged in historically African/Black co-curricular student organizations to bolster a sense of belonging, which facilitated their ability to mediate contentious, unwelcoming, and racially adversarial environments at Northern Mockingbird University (NMU). Implications offer that understanding Black student’s navigational ability as tethered to their holistic safety perceives provides insights about how non-Black peers, faculty, and administrators can engage in helpful ways that lessen antiblack racism exposure.

Plain Language Summary

Men College Students Use Videogames to Be Successful at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

This study analyzes how seven Black men college students use real-time videogame knowledge to determine how, where, when and why they belong on campus while attempting to avoid antiblack racism. Findings reveal that they create and execute ways to disengage when threatened and use what is learned in videogames to stay connected to family, friends and Black culture while learning where they best fit. This study also reveals that Hispanic-serving Institution administrators may not know that the more participants feel a sense of belonging the more they participate on campus. Implications share that a sense of belonging informs how Black men college students value themselves within videogames and on campus, but mostly how they are situated in communities with Black people when antiblack racism is absent.