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“TRUE TO OUR NATIVE LAND”: Distinguishing Attitudinal Support for Pan-Africanism from Black Separatism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2005

Lester K. Spence ,
Todd C. Shaw  and
Robert A. Brown
Lester K. Spence
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and of African and Afro-American Studies, Washington University in Saint Louis
Todd C. Shaw
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and of African American Studies, University of South Carolina
Robert A. Brown
Affiliation:
Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Emory University
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Abstract

There have been several recent attempts to operationalize and measure empirically attitudinal support for Black nationalism. However, scholars have not yet reached a consensus as to what precisely constitutes Black nationalism and its manifestations. Our work addresses three critical questions. First, is Black nationalism a uni-dimensional or a multi-dimensional construct? Second, is Black nationalism another form of xenophobia? Third, is support for Black nationalism a function of time? Some scholars note that Black nationalism takes on the character of its material context and that it cannot be easily subsumed into a trans-historical ideology (Reed 2002; Robinson 2001). We indirectly test these hypotheses by examining the relationship between two components of Black nationalism—Black separatism and Pan-Africanism. To test these hypotheses, we analyze data from the 1979–1980 National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA). Overall, we establish the determinants of support for Black separatism and Pan-Africanism while distinguishing these ideologies' similarities and differences.

Keywords

Public OpinionBlack NationalismPan-AfricanismBlack Politics
Type
STATE OF THE ART
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 91 - 111
Copyright
© 2005 W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research

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