Contemporary Racio-Ethnic Relations in the African Diaspora Pt 2

Contact The study sample included both first- and second-generation African immigrants. In other words, there were respondents who initially migrated to the U.S. as well as their children, some of whom were born in the U.S. and others who were born in Africa and arrived in the U.S. as young children. The native blacks in the sample are of varying ages, from young adults to middle-aged, and therefore comprise two generations as well. The data collected from African immigrants shows that second generation immigrants have more personal contact with native blacks in comparison to the first generation. Second generation African immigrants attend school and share workplaces with native blacks which allows for greater contact and relations between the groups. When asked about views they have of native blacks, the responses were grounded in examples of personal experience. In contrast, first generation African immigrants discuss having the greatest social contact with others of their own ethnic group or Pan-African group. As a result, much of their description about views of native blacks was based less on actual experience and more on broad racial and cultural categorizations. The narratives of native blacks also indicates that younger people, who have more opportunity to meet and socialize with African immigrants at school or work, discuss views of African immigrants in the context of a personal acquaintances or experiences. In contrast, native blacks, who are middle-aged or older, report having limited contact with African immigrants, and as a result, discuss their views of relations between the groups more generally. The generational variation found in the data is important to note because it illustrates how views between the two groups are formed through both social interactions and broader understandings of one another. Further research should incorporate this generational finding, and expect relations between African immigrants and native blacks to vary in this way, based on level, type and frequency of contact the two groups share. Origins In the interviews with black Americans and African immigrants, both groups raised the issue of their origins. For Africans, to know from where their family originally descended, “roots” as was often expressed, was very important to developing personal identity. In contrast, while black Americans often acknowledged their ancestors’ origination in Africa and a sincere sense of loss over their weak ties to Africa, there seemed to be little evidence to indicate that the loose bonds with Africa influenced their construction of race and ethnicity. One of the respondents, an African merchant, believes that black Americans should draw more often on their African origins: Because I think black Americans need a base, they need to have their roots, and not run away from their roots. When I was here, Asian Americans, when you talk to them, they always claim their roots, like, oh, my parents are Asian, I’m Asian. You know what I’m saying? Like black Americans, are you from Africa? They are like, no! No, no! I am American! You know what I’m saying? This respondent appears to be indicating that greater affiliation with Africa would bring benefits to black Americans, especially to children, as he continues to explain: [It is] very important for black America, to um, have more of a base, because I think a lot of times black Americans are angry. They feel like they’re floating, that they don’t belong to America. But the fact is that America is their home, but they have roots from Africa and they should embrace it. They should embrace it, and know more about it. And I really think that it would help them all, especially the kids growing up. For this African immigrant, knowing and understanding your social origins influences the present moment. He alludes to “anger” associated with being black in the U.S. and believes greater connection to Africa would remedy such negative feelings. In contrast, when black Americans discuss their African origins, they do articulate little knowledge about African roots, but do not convey that lacking such knowledge impacts racial or ethnic inequality they experience. For example, a middle-aged native black male explains: Being black and living in the city puts us at a disadvantage automatically, I think. We are mostly uneducated and have minimum wage jobs. They know their part of the African culture but only to a certain extent. Many do not know or understand their culture and heritage or where they come from. For this respondent, racial categorization and urban poverty come together to produce disadvantage through limited educational and work opportunities. A byproduct of such inequality is little possibility to learn about African origins. Another black American middle-aged male echoes, “there’s a sense of homelessness, loss of family” when discussing his ancestral origins. Yet, neither of these native-born respondents suggests that their African roots are integral to their sense of personal identity; rather the proximate circumstances of living in Baltimore and the related social conditions appear to matter more. Further inquiry should investigate the relationship between “anger” over racial inequality and greater/lesser ethnic affiliation as it appears to be an area of incongruence between native blacks and African immigrants. Perhaps ethnic identification and personal history moderate the sense of inequality immigrants feel in the U.S. in comparison to the native born population. How and why that may result is an area for further study. Interestingly, the spending patterns of native blacks complicate this potential argument. Several of our researchers spent time in a number of afro-centric shops, and the owners, all African immigrants, reported that African Americans make up the majority of their customer base, followed by whites, followed by fellow immigrants. One owner conjectured that most Africans wait to buy their “ethnic” objects in their home countries because the prices are so much lower. For African Americans, however, as a Ghanaian shop-owner commented, most simply come into her store looking for “something that looks African.” In fact, “The pastors in the area encourage getting back to their roots. Some of them have never been to an African store before, and don’t even know what they’re looking for. They just want something to wear to church.” There seems to be a trend that even if native blacks don’t articulate their African heritage as being particularly important to their identity, owning a “piece of Africa” is not uncommon behavior. As a further example, one second-generation woman shopping in one of the more expensive Afro-centric stores, where prices for many of the larger objects reach the $1000’s, exclaimed that a particular painting would “look great in our African room!” When her husband remarked that his wife was always giving people history lessons, she replied hotly, “most people love to hear about our history and culture!” Often times in qualitative research, we seek the “negative case” (i.e. the one that does not neatly fit into the analysis) to challenge our emerging understanding of the data and to help develop a more encompassing explanation for the social phenomena. In this data, such a case came up when exploring the “origins” theme. For one black American woman, who married a Nigerian immigrant, and recently traveled to Nigeria to visit his family, knowing her African roots and identifying with them, is very important to her identity. She explains: Part of the problem with the African American today is that they don’t know where they come from. They don’t know their heritage. They don't know their culture. And, Africans went through a lot when they got here obviously. And uh it's just in honor of them. It's just in remembrance of their strength and what they had gone through that I proudly call myself African American. For this respondent, African origins were indeed important to the formation of her racioethnic identity, so much so that she has adopted a Nigerian name that she uses when she travels to visit her husband’s family. On a trip to Nigeria, she reflected “These are my people. These are, these, uh, are my ancestors' kids and I am their kid and we're cousins…and I just felt at home.” While this respondent is a “negative case” to our trend, she may represent another trend altogether, and to further delve into the question of “assimilation” within transnational native black and immigrant couples would add to the richness of this exercise. In addition, further research is necessary to understand why there may be differences between her experience as a middle-class woman and those of the two working-class native born men. Framing Throughout the narratives of native blacks and African immigrants, similar issues would come up, yet they would be cast in a very different way, reminiscent of the Pan-African debate between Du Bois and Garvey discussed in the introduction. In particular, issues relating to race and violence, views about monetary resources, knowledge, and economic opportunity are seen and understood differently by the two groups. When African immigrants discuss native blacks, a source of puzzlement is over the emphasis (in their opinion) that black Americans place on issues of race and racial inequality. African immigrants explain a long history of tribalism within and across countries in Africa. Such inequality between groups, they contend, is nothing new to the African consciousness. An African immigrant explains: Racism is everywhere. In Africa, we have tribalism. In that country, it’s not racism. Because there, when you talking about someone who’s different from you, there’s always going to be a situation where people, a situation where, you, you know what I’m saying? You tell people that you shouldn’t dwell on it. When you dwell on it, it pours more on you. You understand what I’m saying? So, that’s basically where I stand with that….But I don’t deal with racism. Personally, I think that I’m immune to that stuff. Because I came from a country, I told, you um, where tribalism is strong. Tribalism is so crazy, fighting, killing each other. And these are people of the same color, almost no difference. So what would be the big deal if I came down here and you fought me, because I’m a different color? So all of this kind of stuff is what I’ve had to adjust to, and I was able to deal with it. Because it was nothing in Africa, it was already there. In this respondent’s view, given his exposure to African tribalism, American racism does not surprise him. Furthermore, he feels he should not even “dwell” on issues of racism and that he has “adjusted” to the idea of it. As a result, this African immigrant does not acknowledge racism as a major contemporary problem. Other African immigrants also discuss divisions based on religion instead of race. In Africa, there is still racism, but it is based upon religion instead of ethnicity as it is here. Religion is a really big deal to them. We talked about violence too, and how here it is more drug influenced and there they have just as much violence it is just religion influenced. In both the narrative about tribalism and religious differences, violence appears to accompany such issues in Africa. As another native born black respondent shares about a conversation she had with an African about violence: “We tell them that it’s dangerous in our society you know, the violence, and blacks are killing blacks, and…Africans are like tribal people, and there’s always a war. And they kinda took it in that kinda perspective. Oh, you know, we always fightin’ one another over nothing.” Violence, and the “framing” of violence, also emerges as a difference in understanding between native blacks and African immigrants. The value of monetary resources also becomes “framed” differently for native blacks and African immigrants. As one young black American college-educated woman explains, “Money to them is not a new car, it’s helping their grandma live, helping their parents with money, and helping their family members who are in war, versus families over here who are in jail and need someone to bail them out because they got caught selling drugs.” The same respondent also articulates differences in current events between the two groups and therefore knowledge itself becomes “framed” differently: “In Africa, it is different. Those kids know who the President of every country is and are more aware. Whereas, over here, kids in Baltimore probably don’t know who the mayor is….and actually for the first time it is a black woman and they don’t even know that. They should be really proud of this, but they aren’t because they don’t know.” Many African immigrants discuss the economic opportunities available in the United States in comparison to those in their home countries in Africa. The very same opportunities that African immigrants discuss are examples of challenging life circumstances for black Americans. As the native black woman who visited her husband’s family in African explains, Because when I was in Nigeria and I talked with women, my husband’s cousins, women who are my age, and they, they said “Tell us about America.” And for some reason, my daughter and I, we really didn’t…uh…broach it positive. We um, said you work real hard, you know, you work to the sweat of your bra. Everything you have you work hard to get. You know, we live in a nice fine home, and we have two cars, and kids in private school, and all of the good stuff, but you work to have those things and, and they well “I could do that! I work hard and I have it! So, I could certainly come to America and work hard if I could get those things.” So um, they saw it differently. And when they said that to my daughter and I, we both looked at them and said “Wow, didn’t think about that.” And they told us, they said, “You guys have an opportunity and we don’t have opportunities here. I’ll work for the rest of my life and I’ll still have this. This is what I’ll have.” So, they made us, you know, oh, ok, let me appreciate working hard. In this example, work is highlighted as an opportunity for the African immigrant and as part of a challenging life by the native born black. While the difference may seem subtle, it informs varying cultural understanding surrounding work and economic independence in other work (see Arthur 2000). For one group, work is an option pursued of free will, while for the other, work is the only alternative. Such expression of agency by Africans in contrast to the language of constraint expressed by native blacks illustrates structural underpinnings to seemingly cultural differences. Further research may delve into the conflicting cultural and structural explanations for observed differences between native blacks and African immigrants. One particularly poignantly articulated aspect of this framing theme was over the subject of education. Which each group frames education differently, their conclusions are almost identical, the overall sentiment being that blacks tend to “take for granted” the system of free education in place in the United States, as opposed to immigrants, who cannot understand such behavior. One African American woman, described immigrants as being “thirsty for education,” while “we [native blacks] are so dehydrated.” Of the nine African American respondents who commented on this topic, all of them presented similar sentiments. One Baltimore-raised middle-aged man summarized: And I don’t know if it’s by the media because to be honest with you a lot of African people view us as being overly spoiled. We don’t work hard enough for what we have. And in a sense, they’re right. We are spoiled by TV and the things that some of us take for granted that they never had, or had very little of. As far as educational value, they view education as a gift. They don’t take it for granted whereas we do. If we show up for class, we show up for class. If we don’t, we don’t. And it’s taken that way, to a degree. They work hard for everything that they do. It’s not given o them. They don’t want it given to them. African immigrants in our sample framed the issue of education in the same way, and again, nearly all of our respondents who spoke to this topic gave a similar view as this one: Because in my culture, whatever you do, we have to get educated. And sometimes it’s not so much—you know. Education is not such here (laughs). You know, when you come here, there’s just so many different things that you—that can seduce a person away from education. And it happens here in Baltimore! (laughs) Look around the streets and you see! So it’s like, for all the Africans, we can’t understand where, you come to this country and you have the opportunity to go to school, FREE OF CHARGE and you don’t do it! You know?! So we can’t understand why anyone would choose something else! So I guess that’s the first thing we can’t understand here! You know, education is so important, and you come here, and sometimes you see—it’s just not happening. We can’t understand that. It is important to note here that the majority of these respondents have at least a high school degree themselves and at least 17 of the 29 are known to be college graduates or even higher. The lack of variation in our respondent’s level of education may be indicative of the opinions regarding the framing of the education question. The urban setting of Baltimore (discussed further below), where only about 50% of African American students will graduate from the public school system, may also play a role in the focus on education by these respondents. Overall, an important emerging theme in this data is that African immigrants and nativeborn blacks discuss and think about similar social issues that involve race, violence, mobility, work, education, and socioeconomic position yet they are framed very differently. The way in which these important social issues are framed leads to varying understandings about boundaries surrounding constructions of race and ethnicity. When inequality is viewed as an underlying phenomenon in society, there are stricter boundaries around racio-ethnic identity. Perhaps this should not be surprising, as it is often the way in which the dominant group operates. When inequality is not perceived as a problem, perhaps it is because there is some advantage perceived in its presence. Further research could investigate the ways in which “framing” of social problems and issues impacts personal identity for the African Diaspora.