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LINKING BLACKNESS OR ETHNIC OTHERING?

African Americans' Diasporic Linked Fate with West Indian and African Peoples in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2010

Shayla C. Nunnally
Shayla C. Nunnally*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut
*
Professor Shayla C. Nunnally, Department of Political Science & Institute for African American Studies, University of Connecticut, 341 Mansfield Rd., Unit 1024, Storrs, CT 06269-1024. E-mail: shayla.nunnally@uconn.edu
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Abstract

Dawson (1994) submits Black linked fate is a major predictor of Black political behavior. This theory conjectures that the experiences of African Americans with race and racial discrimination in the United States unify their personal interests under a rubric of interests that are best for the Black racial group. With increasing Black ethnic diversity in the United States, however, it becomes important to ascertain how African Americans perceive linkages across Black ethnic groups. This study examines African Americans' linkages with West Indian and African peoples in the United States, referred to here as diasporic linked fate. The study tests the influence of parent-child, intra-racial socialization messages on these linkages. Results suggest that, while a majority of African Americans acknowledge Black linked fate, they distinguish these linkages based on ethnicity and have more tenuous linkages with West Indians and Africans in the United States. While intra-racial socialization messages offer some import in explaining perceived differences in Black ethnic groups' living experiences, more frequent experiences with racial discrimination, and membership in a Black organization offer more import in explaining diasporic linked fate.

Keywords

Black Linked FateBlack DiasporaIntraracial IdentityRacial SocializationWest IndianAfricanAfrican American
Type
State of the Art
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , Fall 2010 , pp. 335 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2010

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