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Abstract

African American undergraduate students at Predominately White Institutions turn to peer networks and campus organizations to cope with academic stress and racial tension. The tendency to seek solace and emotional support in communal spaces is called collective coping. This study investigated the collective coping present at a Black Student Organizations’ rendition of Freak Nik. The social and behavioral patterns described by the study participants have been present throughout history at jooks, juke joints, and rent parties. This paper continues as follows: An examination of relevant literature will provide us with a definition of collective coping, and its relationship to Black Student Organizations. I will then provide a theoretical framework for the linguistic analysis that follows and review prominent themes of jooks, juke joints, and rent parties. These themes will serve as the foundation of our comparison. Next, I will provide an outline of the events of the Black Student Organization’s Freak Nik party, as told by interviewees. A linguistic analysis will examine participants’ semantics, assessing their language style and screening for patterns across the data set. These patterns will in turn provide insight into the African American students’ communal identity. Lastly, key events of the Freak Nik party will be compared to those of jooks, juke joints, and rent parties.

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