- Between weeks 8 and 12, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
This week I presented my findings to the class, continued to conduct research for my project, and started to outline and write my paper. Preparing a PowerPoint in class helped me organize my thoughts and forced me to select the best pieces of data to present to the class. In this way, I had to comb through all my data and figure out which specific polls best advanced my argument, something that has assisted me as I outline and begin writing my paper. Regarding the research I conducted this week, I read both White Bound: Nationalists, Antiracists, and the Shared Meanings of Race by Matthew Hughey and another study measuring millennial attitudes. Hughey’s book argued that white nationalists and white antiracists understand whiteness in similar ways even though they utilize different frames to legitimate their views. This book bolsters my argument because it demonstrates how white nationalists and antiracists possess similar understandings of race. White antiracists are clearly influenced by color-blind frames even though they approach race using a color-conscious framework. I do not intend to dwell much on this book in my paper. However, I believe I will focus on how white antiracists construct whiteness similarly to white nationalists and at times utilize a color-blind framework even though they are committed advocates for racial justice and progress.
The additional study I found was conducted by the Applied Research Center and measures millennial attitudes on race, racism, and key systems in our society. This study encompasses a number of topics including millennial perceptions of race, the significance of race in American institutions, and how millennials define racism. Although almost all of this study is relevant to my paper, I plan on concentrating on how the millennials in this study defined racism. The majority of millennials in the focus groups of this study defined racism as purely interpersonal. Millennials of color were more likely to state that racism can be more institutional or structural, however, the vast majority of white (and many millennials of color) respondents confined racism to the interpersonal realm. This finding is significant because it ties well to the part of my paper where I intend to unpack how millennials overwhelmingly buy into colorblind ideology and believe racism is solely based on differential treatment divorced from historical inequality and discrimination. In this way, this study fits into my narrative that millennials misinterpret racism, something that has adverse implications for the ability of the millennial generation to overcome the legacy of racial domination in America.
Lastly, after reading the book and analyzing this study, I have begun to outline and write my paper. I hope to complete a full draft by Tuesday so that I have plenty of time to edit and properly cite my paper. I think I am in a good place and have plenty of research to truly explore the racial attitudes of the millennial generation.