Sustainability, Solidarity, Resistance: Anti-Racist Student Organizing at a Minority-Serving Institution

University students are increasingly coming together to take action for racial justice and equity. Anti-racist student organizing includes how students collectively work to address racism and oppression at their institutions or beyond through sociopolitical engagement and action (e.g., protests, political education). Minority-serving institutions (MSIs) are in a unique position to support anti-racist student organizing because of their service to students and communities of Color. Yet, research also finds that student organizers can face threats to their psychological well-being and receive little institutional support, resulting in burnout and racial battle fatigue. Given these conditions, there is a limited understanding of how students practice anti-racist organizing, are able to sustain their labor, build solidarity, or engage in resistance. To address these limitations, this study used power mapping workshops to identify the practices of anti-racist student organizing, and how it builds power, at an MSI located in a large, Midwestern city. The study recruited 5 anti-racist student organizing collectives (a total of 20 students) to participate in two-hour power mapping workshops, where anti-racist student organizers worked with each other within their own specific organization to create a power map and then discussed how to build power, specifically in terms of sustainability (i.e., maintaining their organization, gaining momentum for their campaigns), solidarity (building relationships and collaborations), and resistance (fighting oppression and handling challenges). The study applied reflexive thematic analysis (TA) to produce 30 unique tactics on how anti-racist student groups carry out organizing, including 14 themes describing the patterns of how those tactics build power, and 4 overarching themes that prescribe important lessons for anti-racist student organizing. The results of this study address critical limitations in existing literature, specifically detailing how to build power for anti-racist student organizing.