Black Immigrants in the United States

Essays on the Politics of Race, Language, and Voice

Ayanna Cooper, Awad Ibrahim, Ayanna Cooper, Awad Ibrahim

• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781433173974, 9781433173967
• eBook ISBN: 9781433173936
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Sciences générales de l'informatique

In the United States, 'immigrant' is a complicated category. It is used interchangeably with 'refugee' and it is, most of the time, linked to South America, especially Latina/os. Black Immigrants in the United States is arguing that immigrants are not refugees and, whether coming from the Caribbean, Latin America or Africa, Black immigrants are oft-silenced in immigration studies and unsystematically researched. Being one of the first books on the topic in the United States, Black Immigrants in the United States is a crack, a verse in the syntax which links Blackness and immigration; a required reading for anyone who is interested in immigration generally and Black immigration in particular. For example, did you know that 12-13% of the statistically defined as African Americans are 'Black immigrants' (both immigrants and refugees) (Ogunipe, 2011)? Out of this 12-13%, did you know the first and second-generation constitute 41% of Black first-year students in Ivy League? Black Immigrants in the United States is an attempt to answer these questions and paint a picture for this population, where they come from, what languages and histories they bring with them to the United States, and discusses their challenges as well as their triumphs. With this book, as children of migration ourselves, we are turning researching and writing about Black immigrants into acts of love and reading about them into an expression of jouissance.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword (Awad Ibrahim, Co-editor )
• Introduction (Ayanna Cooper, Co-editor)
• “Voyager” (Enzo Silon Surin)
• 1. On Being Black but Not American: Bringing Politics Back to the Study of Race (Pedro A. Noguera)
• 2. The Continuing African Journey to America: Continuity and Change: Struggles, Overcoming, and Celebrating (Ayanna R. Armstrong)
• 3. Black Voices from the Global Village (Amy E. Pelissero, Mary Lou McCloskey, and Teni-Ola Ogunjobi)
• 4. “No one wanted to play with me”: Somali-American Students’ Memories of Racism in Elementary School (Nimo Abdi and Bic Ngo)
• 5. Fostering Senegalese Immigrant Students’ Language and Literacy Learning Experiences and Academic Achievement (S. Joel Warrican, Alex Kumi-Yeboah, Patriann Smith and Melissa L. Alleyne
• “The South Bronx Breaks Its Own Heart” (Enzo Silon Surin)
• 6. The Case of a Somali Teenage Girl with Limited Formal Schooling: Seeing Assets and Poking Holes in Deficit Discourse (Martha Bigelow)
• 7. Taking Control of the Narrative: Empowering Black Immigrants through an African-Centered Approach (Babatunji Ifarinu)⤀
• 8. #BlackImmigrantsMatter: Preparing Teachers to Center Black Immigrant Youths’ Intersectional Identities through Activism and Education (Kisha Bryan)
• 9. Documenting Blackness: Representations of the Haitian Community at the U.S.-Mexico Border (Ebony Bailey)
• 10. Trapped on the Island: The Politics of Race and Belonging in Jazirat al-Maghrib (Isabella Alexander-Nathani)
• 11. Organizations that Support Black Immigrants in the United States (Ayanna Cooper)
• Afterword (Awad Ibrahim & Ayanna Cooper)
• Contributors
• Index