Convergent identifications, divergent meanings: the racial and ethnic identities of second-generation West African youth

Abstract

ABSTRACT Prior research on Black immigrants in the US has almost exclusively focused on those from the Caribbean. Yet African immigrants are poised to become the largest Black immigrant group in the US. This article addresses this issue by exploring the ethnoracial identity-work central to the processes by which the children of African immigrants integrate into American. I draw upon interviews of 36 West African and Black American high school students in the Bronx, New York. The findings reveal an identificational convergence where African and Black American youth identify similarly (i.e. as ‘Black’ and ‘African-American’) yet make different meanings of behind these terms. I examined three prominent domains (e.g. physical appearances, parenting and cultural stereotypes) that shape these varied articulations and intraracial boundaries.