ABSTRACT
Boys and girls of color navigate racism within school-based youth peer cultures, especially at the front lines of racial/ethnic integration reform (Eder, 1995). Previous research, however, has focused on academic outcomes and has only begun to explore racism within youth peer cultures (Chapman, 2014; Scott, 2003). In response, this study explores how adolescents enrolled in racial/ethnic integration programs experience school-based youth peer culture. Using a socio-spatial qualitative methodology (Campos-Holland, Dinsmore, & Kelekay, 2016) and conceptually drawing from critical approaches (Campos-Holland, 2017), we explore how 74 adolescent boys and girls of color, 13 to 17 years of age, navigate youth peer culture in suburban and magnet integration programs in a U.S. northeastern metropolitan area dominated by a school choice culture. The results suggest that racial/ethnic micro-aggressions are used to police social boundaries within youth peer cultures. This, however, varies across programs, with White privilege in suburban schools and an appreciation for diversity in magnet schools producing differentially racialized youth peer cultures. Ultimately, White privilege is at the center of peer resistance to racial/ethnic integration reform; accordingly, curriculum that addresses racism within youth peer cultures could have the power to facilitate meaningful integration.
