Abstract: African Americans are often viewed as a monolithic group in the United States because Black people generally have been subjected to the same racism and prejudice throughout American society. While African Americans have had many similar experiences in the United States, their opinions on the current political, social, and economic worldview may differ based on ethnic groups. The author chose to closely examine the extent to which family history and decade of one's arrival (or one's family's arrival) to the United States, and the region from which one (or one's family) originated, might influence the current political, social and economic worldview of adolescent and adult Americans who self-identify as Black. In order to study the effects of these variables, I administered surveys to 146 African American adults in suburban New York City. The online survey consisted of four parts. These parts included views on economic success, law enforcement, current events, specifically the Black Lives Matter Movement, and Black representation in American society. Ultimately the study found statistically significant differences between region/decade of arrival and societal world views. There were also gender gaps.
Keywords: African-American, representation, BLM, Afro-Caribbean, African, economic success
I. Introduction
Although Black Americans, Caribbean Americans and Africans carry similar emotional baggage from years of oppression (Jackson & Cotharn, 2003), Black Americans are more attuned to discrimination than Afro-Caribbeans. Many Caribbean Blacks believe that their ethnic status garners more respect in the United States and that stereotypes directed towards Black Americans do not apply (Head & Thompson, 2017). Additionally, Afro-Caribbeans tend to report higher levels of internalized racism (Molina & James, 2016).
A word about the terminology used in this paper. After conversations with Professor Marsha Gardener, chair of the Black Studies Program at Adelphi University, the following definitions will be used throughout this study: Black American is defined as African Americans whose family history dates back to pre-Emancipation, Afro-Caribbean refers to participants who were born or descendants of those born in the Caribbean, then immigrated to the United States, African describes participants who were born or descendants of those born in Africa, then immigrated to the United States and African American describes those from any part of the African Diaspora who immigrated to the United States.
Despite African Americans reporting significantly lower rates of upward mobility and higher rates of downward mobility compared to whites (Chetty et al., 2019), differences between Black Americans and Afro-Caribbeans continues in the sense that Afro-Caribbeans are often seen as a model minority. Ifatunji (2016) found that Afro-Caribbeans are 12% more likely to have a job than Black Americans. Additionally, Ifatunji’s study mentions that Afro-Caribbeans are less likely to characterize themselves as “lazy” and consider themselves to “work hard”(2016). Not only does subculture play a role in the determination of economic success, but generation and decade of one’s arrival contributes as well. Afro-Caribbeans born in the United States enjoy higher earnings and occupational status relative to Afro-Caribbeans who personally immigrated to the United States. According to one study, American born Afro-Caribbeans are able to better assimilate due to the influence of the Caribbean parents transmitting the concept of hard work and achievement by emphasizing the importance of schooling (Kalmijn,1996). In addition to economic success, there appears to be a generational difference among African Americans regarding law enforcement. It was found that immigrant generations rated law enforcement, specifically the police more positively on measures of effectiveness, misconduct and general satisfaction than did native-born Americans. However, they were less likely to contact the police for assistance. “Immigrants were significantly less likely than non-immigrants to believe that the police stopping people without a good reason, police engagement in racial profiling, and verbal or physical abusive by police officers were problems” (David & Hendricks, 2007). A Canadian, study evaluated the extent to which Black youth viewed law enforcement, finding that young Blacks in Ontario believed that the police were necessary to prevent crime and provide protection, but that they saw the police as extremely homogeneous-lacking diversity, with insufficient cultural training, and prone to abuse of power (Syed et al., 2018). Moreover, a recent study of cultural and gender biases against women and teachers with non-English speaking backgrounds found that those biases tend to decrease with better representation of both women and non-native English speakers (Fan et al., 2019). The goal of the present research is to learn about internal variety in a population (my own population) too often viewed as monolithic.
II. Method / Procedure
After informed consent was obtained from participants, a four-part survey was administered. 146 African American adults participated in the study. The survey was used to determine the participants’ views on economic success, law enforcement, current events (specifically the Black Lives Matter Movement) and Black representation in American society. After completion, all surveys were scored and entered into an Excel database. Unpaired t-tests, linear and multiple regressions, and between-group ANOVAs were run on all variables to determine mean differences between African Americans of different ethnicities, and to determine the extent to which a variety of independent variables accounted for the variation in the dependent variables.
III. Results
Males perceived better economic opportunities in America (p<.05), and reported rarely changing their views on policing over the last year, relative to females (p<.05). Immigrants express greater overall trust for the police (p< .05) vis-a-vis other groups and are less likely to have changed their views since last year (p<.05). First generation Americans are more likely than immigrants or second/third generation Americans to strongly support BLM (p’s >.05). Curiously, immigrants are the group most likely to see themselves represented in American culture (p<.05). As predicted, Black identity influences views on policing, BLM & representation. Afro-Caribbean’s are least critical of police behavior, but most likely to express evolving attitudes (p’s <.05). Africans are the strongest supporters of BLM (p<.05), yet also the group least likely to see themselves represented in American culture (p<.05). Hypotheses 1 and 2 were neither proved/ nor disproved as there was not enough evidence to support the hypothesis. Hypothesis 3 was supported in that Afro- Caribbeans were least critical of the police compared to Black American. Hypothesis 4 was proved in that Afro-Caribbeans had a mean representation index of 2.82 whereas Black Americans had a representation index of 2.54. Furthermore, the main hypothesis, that African Americans’ cultural background matters in predicting political attitudes and worldview, is supported. However, the picture is nuanced, and further study is warranted.
IV. Discussion
Among 146 African Americans adults, my research unearthed a significant but nuanced relationship between different African American ethnic groups and decade of one’s, or one’s family’s, arrival and their opinions on economics, law enforcement, representation and current events. This study demonstrates that although African Americans are viewed as monolithic, there are significant ethnic differences between Black Americans, Afro-Caribbeans and Africans. The results of this study demonstrate the different outlooks on racism by each ethnic group. Additionally, it addresses factors that must be changed to provide equal economic opportunity between African Americans and their white counterparts. It demonstrates the attitudes that Blacks have towards the police, especially with the current political and social climate and how the law enforcement must dismantle the racist system it was built on. It was expected that Afro-Caribbeans would have a higher representation index than Black Americans (Table 5) mostly because Afro-Caribbeans and Africans come from a country that is predominantly black compared to native born Black Americans who have lived in predominantly white communities for generations and have been subject to their jurisdiction for years as well. However, it was surprising to see that First Generation Americans were more likely than immigrants and second/third generations to support Black Lives Matter because we expected third generation Americans to be more supportive because their family history has suffered generations of the prevalent racism in the United States; this would presumably make them more likely to advocate immediate social change. However, there were some limitations to this experiment. The number of Afro-Caribbeans in the sample doubled the number of Black Americans. Based on the Nassau County Census the participants in this study were not an accurate representation of Black America or Black New York. Moreover, 31% of Nassau County’s African Americans hold a Bachelor’s degree or higher. However, in my sample, 84.5% of the participants had at least a bachelor’s degree. This likely resulted from the “snowball sampling” I employed; those who helped distribute my survey had a graduate degree themselves and sent the link to African American friends, relatives and colleagues. This snowball effect also contributed to the lack of Black Americans because many of my “key informants were of Afro-Caribbean descent themselves. As often happens, female respondents tripled the males in my study. In the future, I plan to increase my number of Black Americans as well as the number of males in my study. I will also seek a more diversely educated sample of African Americans. Further, because my study was entirely quantitative due to the Covid-19 pandemic (i.e. related focus groups were prohibited.) I plan to run a Phase II qualitative study. The consequent mixed-method study will better answer “how” and “why” questions in greater detail.
Works Cited
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