Black
Diaspora
Consortium

DIASPORIC RACISMS: RACIAL PROCESSES IN THE AMERICAS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF U.S. RACE RELATIONS will develop a new area of racial analysis and activist scholarship concerned with the impact of transnational demographic, political, social, and economic processes on the changing character of race relations in the U.S., especially as they impact Black, Latino and indigenous peoples. The objective of the project is to produce knowledge and analysis that can be used to promote racial conciliation and social justice in the U.S. through education, activism and policy creation.

Background

Large-scale immigration from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and elsewhere over the past 30 years has significantly altered the U.S. racial terrain. There has been a proliferation and diversification of communities of color that has transformed the character of race relations in this country from bi-modal to multiple. In this way, the U.S. is thought to be moving away from the traditional Black/white racial dichotomy with different forms of racism and exclusion emerging between whites and these differently racialized groups. Though historically there have been significant populations of Latino, Asian, and Native American peoples in this country and racisms against them, focus on this phenomenon of multiple white racisms has increased in the wake of the most recent U.S. census which indicates that by the middle of the current century non-Hispanic whites will be a minority making for a "minority-majority" country. While research and analysis on multiplying white racisms will be part of the project proposed here, the main focus of Diasporic Racisms will be on the dynamic processes of interpellation and self-making among African descended (and indigenous) immigrants. The former refers to the ways in which these groups are racialized; self-making includes racial attitudes and practices-- including various forms of resistance and activism, among these immigrant and ethnic-racial minority groups themselves, and the impact they have on attitudes and practices on the larger U.S. racial formation. Immigrants arriving from the distinct racial formations of their countries of origin, and establishing in the U.S. ethnic-racial minority communities, bring with them their own distinctive racial ideologies, identities and forms of racialization. This has resulted is an infinitely more complex and nuanced racial situation in the U.S. than is generally understood.

Understanding the racial identities, attitudes and practices of immigrants and their descendants—including various forms of resistance and activism, is crucial to understanding the ways they are integrated into U.S. society and the manner in which they position themselves and are positioned within this country’s racial hierarchy. Understanding these processes is in turn basic to any analysis of the racial future of the United States.

Effective activism, education, and race policy in the U.S. will also depend upon better understanding of the processes of identification, ideology, and practice internal to these communities than is currently available. Accordingly, an important component of this project will be to transform the analysis and scholarship undertaken within its framework into guidelines for the development of policy initiatives, socio-political activism, and education around these issues.