“You Hide Pieces of Yourself”: Navigating White Spaces as U.S. Missionaries of Color

Abstract

While extensive research has been conducted on the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities in predominately white institutions (PWIs) in the United States, there has been little research that examines the experiences of U.S. racial and ethnic minorities that serve for religious reasons with PWIs in international settings. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand how race shapes the relationship of long-term U.S. missionaries of color with their missions organization and teammates. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with sixteen long-term U.S. missionaries of color serving internationally. The findings point to a number of ways that race shapes the experiences of these missionaries and have important implications for cross-cultural workers of diverse backgrounds as well as cross-cultural work teams and sending organizations. The results also point to the need for more research on diverse work teams in international settings.