Did Black Immigrant Teens Change Their Thinking About Race During the Dual Pandemics of 2020-2021?
The murder of George Floyd, the riots, protests, and the rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement brought attention to race, culture, and discrimination in recent years. For Black teens in the United States, evidence of racism in their environment is part of the context of social and identity development. This research examines whether youth who report higher levels of perceived discrimination are more likely to have a changed mindset regarding their thinking about race during 2020-2021. The data used for this study were retrieved from the Food Culture and Health study conducted by Gail Ferguson, Ph.D.; participants were Black teens from immigrant and refugee backgrounds (Somali and Jamaican) and ranged in age from 11 to 18 years. Using logistic regression, my analysis found that perceived discrimination is significantly related to teens’ reports of changing thoughts about race, with each one-point increase in teens’ perceived discrimination associated with a 1.75 times greater likelihood of changed thoughts about race (p = 0.03).