Positionings of the black middle-classes: understanding identity construction beyond strategic assimilation

This paper explores the identities of Britain’s black middle-classes. Drawing upon interviews with seventy-two participants, I theorize a ‘triangle of identity’. This triangle emphasizes how black middle-class identities are constructed within the dynamics of three poles. Firstly, there is the class-minded pole whereby class comes to the fore as a conceptual scheme; secondly, there is the ethnoracial autonomous pole whereby ‘race’ is central to one’s identity and whiteness is actively resisted; and lastly there is the strategic assimilation pole, where one continually moves between classed and racialized spheres of action. This tripartite approach to identity builds upon previous research by further exploring the social, cultural and phenomenological distinctions within Britain’s black middle-classes.     

Christian nationalism and white racial boundaries: examining whites' opposition to interracial marriage

How does the convergence of national and religious identities potentially fortify white racial boundaries in the USA? Focusing on openness to racial exogamy as an indicator of racial boundaries, we examine the link between Christian nationalism and white Americans' views towards their hypothetical daughter marrying an African American, Latino, or Asian. Drawing on insights from social identity complexity theory, we argue that the convergence of religious and national identities serves to reinforce in-group boundaries, thereby fortifying notions of white purity, and consequently, strengthening whites' discomfort with potential race-mixing in marriage. Multivariate analyses of national survey data demonstrate that Christian nationalism is strongly associated with an increase in white Americans' discomfort with a daughter marrying any racial minority, and particularly African Americans. We demonstrate how the convergence of religious and national identities in Christian nationalism influences whites' regulating of racial boundaries (evidenced in intermarriage attitudes) above and beyond the independent effects of political conservatism or religious exclusivism.     

Four thoughts on Charles Mills – Black rights/white wrongs: the critique of racial liberalism

In what follows I provide a review of Charles Mills’ text, Black Rights/White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism. In four points I critique and build upon Mills’ contributions on (1) the multidimensional character of race, (2) the faith in liberalism to alleviate racial injustices, (3) the place of patriarchal tendencies in philosophy, and (4) the “white space” of sociology.     

The school experiences of mixed-race white and black Caribbean children in England

This research aims to explore the school experiences of mixed white/ black Caribbean children in English schools. The overarching findings of this research confirm that although the mixed-race population as a whole is achieving above the national average, the mixed white/ black Caribbean group is consistently the lowest performing mixed-race group in the country. Views of pupils, their parents and teachers in two London secondary schools suggest various reasons why mixed white/ black Caribbean pupils might continue to be the lowest performing mixed group in the country. These included experiences of marginalization and invisibility in school life, the low expectations that teachers held about them, the lack of knowledge about how to support them at school and how all these issues were exacerbated by the friendship groups they mixed in. This research paper discusses these critical factors in detail and their implications for policy and further research.     

Racialization: a defense of the concept

This paper defends the concept of racialization against its critics. As the concept has become increasingly popular, questions about its meaning and value have been raised, and a backlash against its use has occurred. I argue that when “racialization” is properly understood, criticisms of the concept are unsuccessful. I defend a definition of racialization and identify its companion concept, “racialized group.” Racialization is often used as a synonym for “racial formation.” I argue that this is a mistake. Racial formation theory is committed to racial ontology, but racialization is best understood as the process through which racialized – rather than racial – groups are formed. “Racialization” plays a unique role in the conceptual landscape, and it is a key concept for race eliminativists and anti-realists about race.     

Constructing racial difference through group talk: an analysis of white focus groups' discussion of racial profiling

Overtly racist statements are socially and politically unacceptable in the USA. Yet black people in the USA continue to experience discrimination and prejudice at both the individual and institutional levels. This paper examines white people's talk about race in focus groups from the North Carolina Traffic Violation Study. The participants discussed race obliquely, by talking about hypothetical behaviour related to crime and police profiling while largely avoiding direct mention of race. At the same time focus group members voice different expectations for white people and black people. By differentiating between behaviours expected from individuals perceived to belong to different racial groups, they reproduced racial difference. Focus group members legitimized racial profiling and did so using language that was largely ‘colour-blind’ and socially acceptable by attributing the disproportionately high rate of stops for black drivers to ostensibly non-racial factors. The groups used mostly colour-blind language, but the result was racializing discourse.     

Black spaces,black places: Strategic assimilation and identity construction in middle-class suburbia

While white ethnics and immigrants of colour have been studied in terms of their attempts to assimilate into the American mainstream, sociologists assume that ongoing racial discrimination obviates the need for an extensive examination of the actual assimilation trajectories of middle-class blacks. Many middle-class blacks travel from the black to the white world rather than existing exclusively in one racially distinct environment. Yet, we do not fully understand how middle-class blacks conceptualize their own integration into American society. Drawing on data collected through in-depth interviews with middle-class blacks and ethnographic research in a white and a black suburb, I establish the link between an affinity for black spaces and the alternative assimilation trajectories of middle-class blacks. I find that middle-class blacks engage in a variant of segmented assimilation, privileging the black world as a site for socializing even if they live in a white suburb. This selective pattern of assimilation, what I term strategic assimilation, suggests that this population of middle-class blacks does not perceive itself as permanently constrained to the bottom rung of a racial hierarchy.     

A critical race theory approach to black American entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT

In recent years, a growing literature has suggested that self-employment is a viable means of solving economic problems for a wide range of groups who are subject to poverty, discrimination and other disadvantages. Yet African Americans have not developed an ethnic economy large enough to solve many of their economic problems. To explore the question, this paper reviews three of the most common explanations for black Americans’ low rates of entrepreneurship: the cultural/psychological perspective, the ethnic enterprise perspective and the critical race approach. While the first two are widely accepted, neither approach identifies black Americans as a racial group, instead defining them as a cultural or ethnic group. Accordingly, neither apprehends the full impact of racial inequality in limiting black Americans’ entrepreneurial opportunities. Following a discussion of race-based obstacles to entrepreneurship, the paper concludes that the critical race view provides the most convincing explanation for black Americans’ limited entrepreneurial achievements.     

Waiting for the Barbarians: a public opinion analysis of South African attitudes towards international migrants

The South Africa’s democratic nation-building programme has sought to encourage a new non-racial nationalism. Over the last thirty years, racial divisions have lessened as the country has successfully consolidated a new democratic political system. However, interracial animosity and a sense of interracial competition continue to characterize many aspects of everyday life. Does this sense of interracial competition have an association with the emergence of widespread xenophobic sentiment in the country? Using the 2013 South African Social Attitudes Survey, a nationally representative survey, this paper will investigate determinants of anti-immigrants attitudes. The results show that anti-immigrant sentiment is linked to a sense of interracial competition and alienation. A belief that immigrants were beneficial to society was also strongly (and negatively) correlated with attitudes towards immigrants. These results suggest that reducing xenophobia in the country should be seen as part of a larger project of promoting social-cultural cohesion in the country.     

The emergence of black British social conservatism

Historically, to be a black public intellectual in Britain has, almost by definition, meant being located on the liberal-left spectrum, in terms of analyses of race and class. However, in the past decade a number of high-profile black British thinkers have explicitly positioned themselves at odds with black liberal and radical traditions of thought. This has been particularly apparent in their critiques of multiculturalism, youth and education. This paper uses recent documentary sources to analyse the discursive features of this emergent black social conservatism, examining its claims to authenticity, its claims to offer rethinking of multiculturalism and identity, and its objects of racialization. Drawing upon critical discourse analysis and critical theories of race and black intellectual production, it identifies internal tensions in this emergent discourse.     

The perils of integration: exploring the experiences of African American and black Caribbean students in predominately white secondary schools

Racial minority students who attend predominately white schools in the United States and England face unique challenges in their learning environments that are connected to their status as non-white students. Scholars have documented the experiences of racial and ethnic minority students in mixed-raced schools in the United States and the UK for over four decades. However, the authors explore new research territory by employing critical race analysis to further articulate the similar experiences shared by African American and black Caribbean students’ in mixed-race schools. Using data two different studies, one in the United States and one in England, the authors highlight the resemblances between the experiences of African American and black Caribbean students in predominantly white suburban and rural secondary schools. To increase racial equity in education, we must accurately understand the structural and societal barriers that racial minority students face as they continue to access education resources and quality schools.     

The uses of racism: whitewashing new Europeans in the UK

In many respects, recent East European migrants in the UK look like past migrants to the UK: they left poorer parts of the world in search of work and the better life in the UK. But in other respects, they look different: they are white. Their putative whiteness, however, has not exempted them from the effects of racism. But while there is growing evidence of how they have been targets of racism, less attention has been focused on how they are also perpetrators of racism. The purpose of this paper is to compare the ways Hungarians and Romanians wield ‘race’ to assert and defend the relatively privileged position their putative whiteness affords them in the UK's segmented labour market. I argue that these migrants mark, evaluate and rank difference in racialized ways to secure both social-psychological and material benefits.     

The Power of Contexts: Teaching and Learning in Recently Desegregated Schools

The following critical ethnography interrogates what it means for urban students to learn in multicultural ways, given the oppressive historical and present contexts of their newly desegregated urban district. By retelling events that occurred in the district and the classroom, I present a picture of urban students who are willing to learn and engage in classroom activities when the activities do not threaten their emotional safety. Although their actions are understandable, the students' conscious decisions to disengage from school stifles learning opportunities that would allow them to empathize and connect with other students as a move toward individual and group empowerment. Using critical race theory, I problematize the possibilities for successful multicultural classrooms in urban districts with complex legacies of injustice and racial hostility.     

The struggle that cannot be named: violence,space and the re-articulation of anti-racism in post-Duggan Britain

The history of black struggles in Britain has often centred on spaces of violence and resistance. While there has been significant attention paid to how racism is articulated through particular places, less has been said about anti-racism being communicated through its associations with space and place. Using Tottenham (north London) as a case study, I draw on ethnographic observations at demonstrations and public meetings, in addition to semi-structured interviews with anti-racist activists resisting policing in post-2011 London. This paper argues that, over time, racist metonyms describing places racialised as black have led to the rise of a metonymic anti-racism. Metonymic anti-racism is used alongside more overt anti-racist language, and has profound implications for understanding struggles against police racism in Britain. The paper analyses these implications, contextualizing them historically, in light of neoliberalised racial discourses and how anti-racist metonyms shape articulations of black struggle against policing in post-2011 Tottenham.     

The racial formation of medieval Jews: a challenge to the field

Social science discourse on race and racism has limited itself through processes of periodization and temporal constructions of racial differences, and recent scholars continue to posit race and racism as effects of modernity rather than investigating its development prior to modernity. This article looks to present a challenge to contemporary understandings of the phenomena of race and racism through a historical investigation of Jews' relationship to medieval Christendom. Through the framework of racial formation (Omi and Winant [1986] 1994) I look to show how race as a marker of both corporeal difference and socio-political consequence was formulated over time through a rearticulation of Church doctrine which first positioned the inferiority of the Jew within their religious practices, to one which located their inferiority as inherently part of their soul and manifest upon their bodies – from fixable through conversion to incurable and diseased.     

Defensive localism in white and black: a comparative history of European-American and African-American youth gangs

Despite the largely voluntary character of Nigerian immigration to the United States since 1970, it is not clear that their patterns of integration have emulated those of earlier immigrants who, over time, traded their specific national origins for “American” or “White” identities as they experienced upward mobility. This path may not be available to Nigerian immigrants. When they cease to be Nigerian, they may become black or African-American. In this paper, I use US Census data to trace patterns of identity in a Nigerian second-generation cohort as they advance from early school-age in 1990 to adulthood in 2014. The cohort shrinks inordinately across the period as its members cease to identify as Nigerian, and this pattern of ethnic attrition is most pronounced among the downwardly mobile – leaving us with a positively select Nigerian second generation and, perhaps, unduly optimistic assessments of Nigerian-American socioeconomic advancement.     

Body area dissatisfaction in white,black and Latina female college students in the USA: an examination of racially salient appearance areas and ethnic identity

Abstract

Dissatisfaction with one's physical appearance is rampant among women living in western cultures. However, little research has examined dissatisfaction with body areas that may be more salient to racial-minority groups (e.g., hair, eyes, skin colour). This study examined dissatisfaction with racially salient appearance areas and ethnic identity in self-identified black (n=76), white (n=104) and Latina (n=106) female college students in the southern USA. Results revealed that Latina women reported significantly more dissatisfaction with their eyes and nose than white and black women. Additionally, white and Latina women reported significantly more dissatisfaction with their facial features, lips, lower body and overall body than black women. Stronger ethnic identity predicted lower levels of body dissatisfaction on most appearance areas for all women. These results suggest that social scientists should consider racially salient appearance areas in the measurement and conceptualization of body dissatisfaction in ethnically diverse women.     

The association between sleep chronotype and obesity among black and white participants of the Bogalusa Heart Study

ABSTRACT

Research indicates that sleep duration and quality are inter-related factors that contribute to obesity, but few studies have focused on sleep chronotype, representing an individual’s circadian proclivity, nor assessed these factors in racially diverse middle-aged samples. We examined the associations between chronotype and obesity among black and white men and women participating in the Bogalusa Heart Study (BHS).

Body mass index (BMI) and sleep data were available for 1,197 middle-aged men and women (mean age 48.2 ± 5.3 years) who participated in the BHS 2013–2016. Based on the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire’s cutoff values for chronotypes, we combined ‘definitely morning’ and ‘moderately morning’ types into ‘morning’ type, ‘definitely evening’ and ‘moderately evening’ types into ‘evening’ type and kept those who were “neither” type in a separate group. We used ‘morning’ type as the referent group. Obesity was defined as a BMI ≥ 30. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine associations adjusting for sex, age, education, smoking, alcohol use and drug use, depression, shift work, physical activity and sleep duration.

Evening chronotype, reported by 11.1% of participants, was associated with obesity after multi-variable adjustment, including shift work, physical activity and sleep duration (OR 1.67, 95% CI: 1.08–2.56). However, once stratified by race (black/white), this association was found only among white participants (OR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.12–3.25) after full adjustment.

In our biracial, community-based population, evening chronotype was independently associated with obesity, specifically among white participants. Further research is needed to identify behavioral, endocrine, nutritional and genetic pathways which underlie these associations.