BEING RACIALIZED ETHNICS: SECOND GENERATION WEST INDIAN IMMIGRANTS IN NEW YORK CITY

Abstract

While the issue of “Blackness” has long pervaded American society, it has rarely been problematized in social science literature and treated as a taken-for-granted. This article utilizes in-depth interviews with second generation West Indian adults in New York City to examine the ways in which they conceive of their Blackness, both racially and ethnically. New York City is viewed as an important urban context that in many ways facilitates the formation of identity for this population. The assimilation process, or not, of second generation West Indians is also considered in terms of socioeconomic status and gender. The results indicate that second generation West Indians strongly identify with both their racial and ethnic identities, which in turn calls for a reconceptualization of “Blackness”. There is also evidence that points to New York City as a space of cross-cultural integration where identity formation is significantly impacted by the presence of other immigrants (and their children) that leads to a pan-immigrant or pan-ethnic identity among young New Yorkers.

Citation

Butterfield, S.-A.P. (2004), "BEING RACIALIZED ETHNICS: SECOND GENERATION WEST INDIAN IMMIGRANTS IN NEW YORK CITY", Krase, J. and Hutchison, R. (Ed.) Race and Ethnicity in New York City (Research in Urban Sociology, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 107-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1047-0042(04)07005-9