Chapter 11: Growing Up Black and Brilliant: Narratives of Two Mathematically High-Achieving College Students

In this chapter, the author exposes how mathematical brilliance and racial identity operates for two high-achieving African American students, through an analysis of two in-depth narratives. The two upper-level college students, Cory and Tiffany (all names are pseudonyms), were chosen from participants of a larger study of 23 high-achieving mathematics and engineering undergraduate students. Because of similarities and differences, they viewed the significance or operation of race as constraining and/or contributing to their academic and life chances (McGee, 2009). While they do hold different frames on who they are racially, they both struggle to respond to racial discrimination on the part of peers and educational institutions, and they both see mathematics and engineering as a way to prove the stereotypes wrong. Additionally, they both struggle to articulate and respond to the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) racism within White peer groups.