<p>This paper examines how second-generation Nigerian Pentecostals in Britain cope with racism, asking whether these coping strategies are best understood as passive, pragmatic, or even resistant. Drawing on empirical data, it explores how second-generation Nigerians make life choices and how socialization into their migrant parents’ culture and religion as well as British society shape identity construction and belonging. Participants described experiences in which their blackness was frequently made central to interactions in educational, occupational, and other public spaces. However, rather than allowing these encounters to define their outcomes, many developed Pentecostal-informed and culturally influenced ways of being that enabled them to negotiate the interstices of race, faith, and integration. Common responses include silence, avoidance, and ways of “excusing whiteness.” These may be understood as religiously informed practices, rooted in values of restraint and endurance, aimed at fitting in, avoiding confrontation, and maintaining emotional well-being and socioeconomic mobility. Although often viewed by outsiders as passive, participants consider these responses as pragmatic and shaped by Pentecostal and family values such as longsuffering, humility, discipline, and hard work. Others adopt more open forms of resistance like speaking out against racism, participating in anti-racist activities, and leveraging their social and religious networks to challenge discrimination. However, these reactions were flexible and context-dependent, influenced by age, socioeconomic status, and individual ambition as well as religious and familial upbringing. This paper argues that Pentecostal and family moral frameworks complicate secular understanding of agency because these teachings promote both tolerance and resistance to racism.</p>