The meanings of Blackness: Belonging and exclusion among African immigrant parents and students in US schools

Abstract

This article explores how particular understandings of Blackness among African immigrant students and parents shape their experiences of exclusion and belonging within the American educational landscape. Based on ethnographic interviews drawn from a larger mixed-methods study of African immigrant students and parents in a mid-Atlantic community, the article discusses the meanings these immigrants give to race, and the ways in which being an African Black was associated with experiences of exclusion in US society. Interviews also revealed a significant resistance to identification as African American ‘Black’, as African American Blackness was associated with styles of self-presentation and behaviour that do not conform to immigrant ideologies surrounding a good education. Lastly, African immigrants express a powerful belief in American opportunity that fuels aspirations for economic success. This analysis suggests avenues for exploring how Blackness, immigrant status and transnational identifications matter for theorizing intersections of race and belonging in diasporic populations.

Yalla Nutbikh “Let's cook”: Negotiating emotions of belonging through food in heritage language classrooms

“…Indeed, studies abound with accounts of how students’ emotions of belonging in schools are shaped by dominant discourses and stereotypical images of their racialized subjectivities. Some scholars have focused on the experiences of nonbelonging among Black youth (Grace, 2020; Wang & Hoffman, 2021), Latinx youth (Bondy, 2015; Rodriguez, 2020; Russell & Mantilla‐Blanco, 2022), and Muslim youth (Abu El‐Haj, 2007; Abu El‐Haj et al., 2011; García‐Sánchez, 2014; Guo et al., 2019). Across these explorations, the relationships among race, whiteness, and belonging have emerged as central to understanding belonging in school‐aged youth.…”

“…Emotions of belonging among immigrant and racialized youth have long been linked to schooling experiences. Time and again, researchers have presented vivid examples of how these youth are positioned as nonbelonging and faced with confrontations from teachers and students for voicing opinions or behaving in ways that depart from white normative views (see Grace, 2020; Wang & Hoffman, 2021, on Black youth; Bondy, 2015; Rodriguez, 2020; Russell & Mantilla‐Blanco, 2022, on Latinx youth; and Abu El‐Haj, 2007; Abu El‐Haj et al., 2011; García‐Sánchez, 2014; Guo et al., 2019, on the experiences of Muslim youth). The bulk of this scholarship on belonging has confined itself to mainstream schooling experiences in primary and secondary (K−12) schools.…”