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Are Black Immigrants Black?

Debra Dickerson on the divide between 'native' and 'immigrant' blacks

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 1, 2008 7:31 PM CST
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(Newser) – The notion that a black American must be a “descendant of West African slaves brought here to labor for whites against their will” just reinforces the “invisibility that black immigrants face in America,” Debra Dickerson writes in Mother Jones. But she can’t escape it herself, she admits; she has said that Barack Obama isn’t black, endorsing “a politico-cultural reality which I reject.”

"'Black' is simply a label which obscures more than it illuminates,” writes Dickerson, who sees behavior from the streets to the Ivy League that puts a premium on a heritage of American slavery. Though studies show African immigrants to be the country's most educated group, blacks often shun them. African-Americans “don't want them taking 'our' jobs and affirmative action slots.”

A sight seeing bus with tourist drives past the Apollo and turns at the the intersection known as African Square in the New York neighborhood of Harlem on Oct. 18, 2007. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
A sight seeing bus with tourist drives past the Apollo and turns at the the intersection known as African Square in the New York neighborhood of Harlem on Oct. 18, 2007. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)   (Associated Press)
Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., and his daughters Malia, left, and daughter Sasha enjoy the Iowa State Fair in this Aug. 16, 2007, file photo in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., and his daughters Malia, left, and daughter Sasha enjoy the Iowa State Fair in this Aug. 16, 2007, file photo in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/M....   (Associated Press)
Debe, a Nigerian immigrant, speaks about the ongoing neighborhood development around the African variety store he manages in Harlem, New York on Monday Dec. 10, 2007. Harlem is the historic capital of black American culture. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Debe, a Nigerian immigrant, speaks about the ongoing neighborhood development around the African variety store he manages in Harlem, New York on Monday Dec. 10, 2007. Harlem is the historic capital of...   (Associated Press)
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Dickerson on Obama
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education • Barack Obama • African Americans • Ivy League • West Africa • black community • African • Debra Dickerson • West Indies • Malcolm X • Marcus Garvey

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