| Abstrakt: |
Sociologists generally contend that racial and ethnic identities "emerge" from social interaction as opposed to being expressions of "natural" differences, but it remains for us to demonstrate precisely how these identities emerge. This paper, based on observations and group interviews with 50 students at two San Francisco middle schools, helps clarify the process of racial and ethnic identity formation among adolescents. To do this, I focus on how adolescents define themselves through their friendships and clique memberships - relationships they value highly. I note that students' self-definitions are not only circumscribed by the social boundaries of social class, neighborhood and ethnic communities, but are also influenced by the symbolic boundaries that they draw at school (e.g. through creative uses of language and clothing). Students utilize a variety of cultural scripts to present credible definitions of themselves to their peers, but I find that they differ in their abilities to access these scripts and perform them in "authentic" ways. I discuss how these attempts at authentic self-definition are mediated by peer group interaction, and I underscore the ways that students' boundary work is implicated in the larger process of race making. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
