Becoming “Black”: Exploring the Racialized Experiences of African Immigrants in the United States

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study critically examines how African students experience racialization and the process of negotiating their Black racial identity in the United States. The authors conducted focus group interviews to analyze the collective racialized experiences among African international students and African students who live in the United States as permanent residents or naturalized U.S. citizens at a Midwestern University. They discovered two themes that constituted how the participants made sense of their shifting Black subjectivity. This study reveals that Black migrants use multiple and sometimes contradictory strategies to negotiate their shifting Black subjectivity, which ultimately has implications for intercultural relations and Black identity politics.