Exploring Black Immigrants’ and Nonimmigrants’ Understanding of “Acting Black” and “Acting White”

Abstract

Immigrant and nonimmigrant Black adolescents' perceptions of "acting Black" and "acting White" were compared using a concurrent mixed-methods approach. Using the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study data set, 39 second-generation African and Caribbean adolescent immigrants and a matched set of 39 nonimmigrant Black peers responded to the question "What does it mean to act Black/White?" Their responses were examined for differences and change over time. Quantitative analyses revealed that all Black youth shifted in their perspectives of acting White and acting Black but immigrant youth differed significantly from their nonimmigrant counterparts. Analysis of secondary qualitative text further highlighted respondents' development and change at Time 2. These results underscore a racial cultural orientation process under the tridimensional model that acknowledges Black immigrants' acculturation to African American culture in the United States.

Sociocultural Influences on the Sociopolitical Development of African American Youth

“…Cultural context might also introduce variation in youth's SPD. In the United States, the sociocultural experiences of Black immigrant youth from the Caribbean and African nations differ from those of African Americans with a generational legacy in the United States . For Black immigrant youth, developing a connection to a collective Black identity and becoming acculturated to Black American culture may be important to their SPD.…”

Not Haitian: Exploring the Roots of Dominican Identity

“…Despite the variety of factors involved in this "rewiring", lighter-skinned individuals maintain an advantage not dissimilar to that conferred by career success (power and money). This phenomenon extends to African Americans who are called (and considered) White by both their peers and by White people based on factors such as their educational accomplishments, career success, financial status, and neighborhood-attributes that override their Black phenotype, and are independent of their own self-perception (Carbado and Gulati 2013;Thelamour and Johnson 2016).…”

Parsing the Gulf between Africans and African Americans

“…Regardless of their Black phenotype and their own racial self-identification, African Americans may be deemed "white" by both their peers and white people due to their educational and career accomplishments, dialect, financial status, neighborhood, etc., demonstrating the variety of factors relevant to racial identity (Carbado and Gulati 2013;Thelamour and Johnson 2016). Similarly, common social interests (such as sports or Greek fraternity participation) appear to be more salient than race in the case of predicting collegiate African American male solidarity (Harper and Nichols 2008).…”