Abstract
This qualitative study combined critical youth participatory research and ethnographic methods to investigate rural youth relationships to race and racism, which are currently undertheorized. The research question guiding this inquiry was: How do rural youth describe the salience of race and racism in the United States (U.S.) for themselves personally, and for the U.S. as a collective? This ethnographic study included 12 high school-aged youth, six global majority youth, and six white youth, from the rural Inland Northwest region of the U.S. All participants/co-researchers had previously been students in the researcher’s middle school class between 2017-2020. Data included transcripts from five participatory summer sessions during which participants/co-researchers shared their own experiences with race and racism in and out of school, learned from peers, and envisioned ways adults can better support youth in the future. Conversations included small and whole group formats. Individual follow-up interviews with youth were conducted after the summer sessions concluded. Data were analyzed using grounded methods including open, inductive coding, participant checks, and triangulation. Findings include youth rationale for engaging in race talk, distinct ways global majority youth and white youth experience race, critical analysis of race at school, as well as youth-generated recommendations for making schools more truthful, welcoming spaces for youth to be and learn.