ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with a short introductory vignette of one participant, Richard (an Asian queer man), who was enrolled at a large public historically white institution in the Southeast. Richard’s story introduces the chapter on (un)learning as the central way that identity exploration occurred for Queer Students of Color. Richard spoke about how he had to unlearn negative messages pertaining to his queer and Asian identities, as well as what contributed to his learning positive views on these intersecting social identities. This chapter then covers a significant finding from the study: participants explored their identities by engaging in a cycle of (un)learning. In particular, attending their historically white institution allowed them to unlearn previously internalized harmful negative messages while also giving them the opportunity to learn new positive ideas about their identities. The chapter articulates how this process of (un)learning occurred in four primary dimensions: cognitively, behaviorally, affectively, and socially.
