Browsing by Subject "Racial identity"

The increasing ethnic diversity among Black people in the United States is growing at a near exponential rate due to the migration of Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latino, and African immigrants to the United States. This study is an endeavor to understand how this increasing diversity in ethnicity among Blacks in the U.S. will influence the boundaries of Black identity and Black politics. I ultimately aim to gain a sense of the processes by which Black immigrants come to embrace or reject a racial identity, the mechanisms by which African-Americans become more accepting of "cross-cutting" political issues, and the extent to which an intraracial coalition and a broader, more inclusive racial consciousness--a diasporic consciousness--might develop among Black immigrants and African Americans. This study utilizes survey data, in-depth interviews with African Americans and Black immigrants, and controlled experiments to examine the questions presented here. This study finds that African Americans and Black immigrants are accepting of a Black identity that is inclusive of ethnic diversity, largely due to shared racialized experiences. Moreover, this study concludes that while group consciousness influences the behaviors and attitudes of Black immigrants and African Americans in very similar ways, there are important differences between the groups that will need to be considered in future Black politics studies. Finally, this study finds that there are obstacles to raising a more inclusive racial consciousness because African Americans and Black immigrants do not see eye-to-eye on what issues should be be prioritized on a unified Black political agenda.

There is widespread evidence that health disparities between whites and blacks in the U.S. cannot be fully explained by inter-group socioeconomic differences. Further, research shows that racism plays a significant role in explaining racial health disparities. However, there is less research that attends to what psychosocial and socioeconomic resources may be protective of black middle-class health over time. My research starts to fill this gap by examining whether racial identity and childhood socioeconomic status are protective of black health over time.

In Chapter 2, I use data from the American Changing Lives Study (ACL) and examine whether a strong racial identity is a protective mechanism in the relationship between racism and two health outcomes: self-rated health and depressive symptoms. My findings suggest that whether racial identity is protective depends on the health outcome and the frequency of racism respondents experience. My results also indicate that middle-class is not consistently a protective factor for black health.

In Chapter 3, I use data from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL) and the ACL to investigate whether childhood socioeconomic status is associated with adult health for blacks, and particularly black women. I argue that relative childhood socioeconomic advantage is more important for disadvantaged race and race/gender groups. Further, using an intersectional approach, I argue that it is most important for black women. My findings indicate that the association of childhood socioeconomic status and adult health is significant for blacks, but not whites. I also find that childhood socioeconomic status is especially important for black women.

In the United States children spend anywhere from nine to thirteen years in school. During this time, children experience some of their most developmentally formative years of their life, which is often characterized as adolescence. For many Black girls in school, this period of adolescence is often where they learn about how their racial and gender identity can affect their everyday life. From teachers who refuse to pronounce their Black girl students’ names correctly to statewide legislation that specifically prohibit the teaching on race and slavery, schools become a space where Black girls begin to receive negative messages about their race. This study constitutes a practice-based mode of inquiry, called Embodied Resonance, into Black girl hood and offers an artistic research project to address the negative impact that the process of racialization has on Black girls. The outward facing outcome of this process was a Marade, the combination of a March and a Parade, that shared the Embodied Resonance practice publicly on the Abele Quad on Duke University’s west campus. During this process, I, along with three first-year Black girl Duke students, explore our past experiences as high schoolers and start to uncover the ways in which we have became who we are today.

This study examined changes in African American adolescents' racial identity content (e.g., connectedness, awareness of racism, and embedded achievement) and academic adjustment (e.g., Academic and disciplinary adjustment, perceptions of school and teachers, and relationship with school peers) between early and late adolescence. Data analyzed were from a subsample of youth (N = 514) who participated in the multi-site Fast Track Project designed to prevent problem behaviors (e.g., disruptive, aggressive, and antisocial behavior). Results from latent growth curve models suggest that connectedness and embedded achievement remain stable across adolescence. However, awareness of racism increases from early to late adolescence and this increase is linked to declining self reported relationships with school peers. These findings also indicate that the relationship between racial identity and academic adjustment is moderated by gender. For girls, awareness of racism predicted negative peer relationships in early adolescence, but not across the study years. For boys, increasing awareness of racism predicted declines in peer relationships across adolescence. The present findings contribute to the understanding of adolescent racial identity content change.