Ethnic diversity and pan-black racial solidarity: Locating the bonds of political unity among black Americans and black Caribbean immigrants in the U.S.

Abstract

This dissertation project assesses whether traditional explanations of black American political perspectives and black American political behavior in the literature adequately account for the political adaptation of immigrant black communities in the United States. I examine the attitudes and behavior of black Americans and black immigrants to evaluate whether their patterns of incorporation support the dominant claim within the black politics literature that black political incorporation is defined by shared norms about racial identity based on a common history and culture (Tate, 1993; Dawson, 1994; 2001). I also evaluate claims within the immigrant politics literature that state that blacks will display more diverse patterns of political incorporation as a function of ethnic diversity related to differences in national origin (Vickerman, 1999; Waters, 1999; Rogers, 2006). I argue that as the black population confronts its growing ethnic diversity, the political incorporation of this community will be defined by pan-black racial solidarity. Pan-black racial solidarity incorporates the awareness among blacks that ethnic diversity represents a concrete group boundary, however, when it comes to matters of race, it is crucial that blacks cooperate with one another in order to minimize the negative social, economic, and political consequences of racial inequality. Pan-black racial solidarity represents the development and expression of racial group identification among black Americans and black Caribbeans. Analysis of survey data and focus group interviews reveals that perceptions of racial common fate capture pan-black racial solidarity among black Americans and black Caribbeans. I find that pan-black racial solidarity reflects an acknowledgement among immigrant blacks and U.S. born blacks that their lives are linked by the common problem of discrimination, rather than shared history and culture. The dissertation highlights that although ethnic differences are highly salient within the black community, shared problems of race among immigrant blacks and black Americans trump the political salience of ethnicity in the context of the United States. Black Americans and black Caribbeans perceive cultural distinctions between their communities; however, their experiences of political incorporation are linked by a common concern that society does not distinguish ethnic differences among them, but instead, defines them primarily by their racial characteristics.