Black doctoral students that enabled their willingness to risk cross-racial trust. The six subthemes under ability to trust include: past experiences, generally trusting, courage, innate trust of
Blacks, negative experiences with Blacks, and trust by proxy.
1.4.1. Past Experiences. Half of participants shared differing life experiences and events
where White people had proven trustworthy and therefore provided the experiential bases for future cross-racial trust. Kelly noted Whites who married into her family who were sensitive to the myriad ways Blacks experience racism. Darnell was raised in a multiracial church and both experienced and witnessed positive Black-White relationships. Garvey told the story of having White coach who would routinely invited him over for dinner with his family because he knew that Garvey’s single mother often worked late into the evening. Jessica noted past White employers and administrative supervisors who treated her well. Simone shared the story of a k- 12 teacher who invited students to call him at home if they had questions about homework. She
called him a few times, even interrupting his dinner, and found him eager to help. These relationships helped to provide the experiential and emotional base for the risk of cross-racial trust.
1.4.2. Generally Trusting. Five participants shared that they view themselves as
generally trusting, and therefore willing to give all people a chance to prove trustworthy. Simone said:
I think that I'm a trusting person. I'm also a cautious person at times. I think the internal quality I have is that I don't think that everybody is bad. I don't think that you're bad and you have to prove that you're good kind of thing. I think that people are good and I'm going to observe for a little while to see how good you are, if you're a very trustworthy person or if you can't be trusted too much. I think that people are good. I don't hold grudges against people that I don't feel like I can't trust. I don't feel like they're bad people. I think that if someone wants to know about me, I'm open to discussing it.
These students believed their generally trusting nature enabled the possibility for a cross-racial trusting relationship that created the possibility for the mentoring dyad.
Yet, all participants did not describe themselves as generally trusting. Anthony believed himself to be cautious and guarded toward people of all races. He noted that he chooses to observe people over time in order to discern whether they are trustworthy.
1.4.3. Courage. Two participants noted that courage is needed for Blacks to be
willing to engage in cross-racial trust. Garvey said:
I know a couple of other students of color that are currently in doc programs and just the sharing of our experiences, it seems like there's a level of courage
that one needs in general to pursue and continue and to persist. To be willing to open up to someone and know that the reaction that you get might not be one that you want or that you even should get…
All ten students in this study spoke to the reality and presence of racism in their lives, and therefore Blacks who attempt a cross-racial trusting relationship are exposing themselves in vulnerable ways.
1.4.4. Innate Trust of Blacks. Not directly related to cross-racial trust, the research team
noted that three participants spoke of how much easier it is for them to trust other Blacks and how this even came naturally for some students. Kelly shared:
When I saw this question, I laughed because I think it boils down to white people had to earn my trust. Black people had to earn my distrust. Whereas, there's just this assumption when you see someone who looks like you, that they get your experiences, that they understand and they know about code switching. They know about parents having white voices. That there're just cultural things that you don't have to explain to them and that you just don't even have to, like you can just connect with.
These participants assumed that other Blacks could empathize with their personal experiences of racism in a way that Whites cannot. Yet, there were other Black participants for whom trust of Blacks did not come naturally and, in fact, was more difficult.
1.4.5. Negative Experiences with Blacks. Four participants shared negative experiences
in their past with Blacks, some involving peer relationships, others involving professors,
supervisors, or former employers, which made them cautious of trusting Blacks and left the door open to Whites as a possible mentor. Jacen shared:
when I think of mentors in the profession, those are the only two I had. I haven't had a good experience with black individuals. I don't even know any… that are far enough ahead of me…With those two I feel less, the best word I can think of is catty. I feel like when I have approached some black females that are in the profession, it has not been approachable, and I'm just like I don't know what's going on here. I have found two [White] people, and I don't know if that is the fact that they're different than me, so maybe they feel less
intimidated. I don't know what it is.
Chad shared about growing up as a child and being mocked by his Black peers for not being Black enough due to some of his cultural interests. Chad reflected on how his past experience of rejection influenced his young adulthood:
I guess I just really was unaware of how blind I've become or how fearful I've become of my own race. It was, actually heart wrenching for me to recognize that I'm not comfortable being in a room full of Black people. I don't know if I'm gonna be outed as the Black man that doesn't have a whole lot of experiences with being Greek or going to all the late night parties and things like that. I was always worried about being, even in a professional setting, being outed as, "Oh, well he's black, but he's not really.
All four of these participants shared some reticence in sharing these experiences. These students did not realize they were not alone, that almost half of the participants of this study had similar struggles with intraracial trust.
1.4.6. Trust by Proxy. Half of the participants shared that they would refer to other
Black colleagues or students to ascertain whether a person maybe trustworthy. Kelly described her process of asking other Blacks about White persons:
Usually, if I wasn't familiar with someone and I had a friend who was saying, "You can trust this person. I've gone and talked to them before. They get it. They'll talk to you about it." People kind of backing up what they're saying with their actions and having peers saying that this is someone you can go to.
These students trusted the experience of other Blacks in their discerning of which Whites to trust.
2. Superordinate Theme Two: Reasons for Mistrust
Reasons for Mistrust. The research team labeled a second superordinate theme as reasons for mistrust. All ten participants spoke about reasons they had for mistrusting Whites. Reasons for mistrust encompasses nine themes which describe the various causes for Black mistrust of Whites: overt messages, White voice, past racist experiences, avoidance of topic, microaggressions, being dismissed, ill motives, tokenism, and politics.
2.1. Overt Messages. Half of participants shared they heard messages from their family since childhood that Whites are untrustworthy. Chad said, “I was constantly told ‘You can't have friends. You can have people around you, but just don't trust the white people that are around you’’. Nicole likewise shared that she heard from her parents, “Don't trust them. It was that simple...There was this overarching theme of don't trust white people.”
This was not true of all of the participants. Garvey’s parents told him when he was a child to trust Whites. His father eventually married a White woman. Yet, Garvey noted that as he grew older, his parents began to inform him of the realities of racism and how to navigate himself in life as a Black male.
Jacen, whose older brother is also a mental health professional, shared with her that he does not give much attention to microaggressions. He also shared with her that he has had no choice but to have White mentors because of the lack of diversity in his academic programs and places of his employment.