Doctoral Dissertation Research: Black, Brown or Asian? : Afro- and Indo-Caribbean Immigrants Encounter Race in the United States

传统上，学者们通过“黑人-白人”肤色线来理解美国的种族等级制度，这反映了我们历史上最重要的种族区分轴的首要地位。然而，旧的黑人-白人模式越来越不足以理解美国的种族和民族类别。黑人-白人模式在种族关系中的主导地位正在下降，这凸显了对研究种族/少数民族群体之间关系的学术研究的迫切需要。本项目利用非洲裔和印度-加勒比移民到美国的独特案例，通过研究黑人和亚洲人之间的少数民族间分层，解决了这一新兴需求。这两个群体有着相似的文化背景，但在美国被划分为不同的种族/民族群体。该分析结合了对美国非洲和亚洲加勒比移民的收入和居住地点的定量研究，以及对移民的深入访谈，这些移民试图更好地了解他们在第二祖国的种族和民族认同。这个项目将丰富我们对少数民族间关系如何可能重塑21世纪美国日益多样化和迅速变化的种族和民族格局的理解。因此，本研究以非洲和印度-加勒比移民为例，探讨：(1)在控制文化特征和人力资本的情况下，黑人和亚洲人的表型在劳动力和住房市场中是如何被对待的；(2)来自同一移民社会的文化融合的黑人和亚洲移民如何对美国的种族类别做出反应；(3)哪些因素预测了非洲和印度-加勒比人对美国种族类别做出的民族-种族选择。第一个问题评估种族归属对社会经济机会的影响。后一个问题考察了种族认同如何递归地重塑盛行的种族等级制度。我们使用混合方法来回答这些问题。对来自美国社区调查公共使用微观数据样本的数据进行多变量分析，以比较美国非洲裔和印度裔加勒比人的结构性合并结果。通过一年的人种学观察，以及来自120个扩展访谈的数据，作者揭示了非洲裔和印裔加勒比移民是如何根据美国的种族背景做出种族选择的。实地考察将在纽约进行，纽约长期以来一直是非洲裔和印裔加勒比移民到美国的主要目的地，今天仍然拥有美国最大的加勒比人口。这项研究将对21世纪美国日益多样化的种族/民族关系的演变性质提供有价值的启示。

Scholars have traditionally understood the American racial hierarchy through the lens of the "Black-White" color line, reflecting the primacy of our most historically consequential axis of racial distinction. However, the old Black-White model is increasingly inadequate for understanding racial and ethnic categories in the United States. The declining primacy of the Black-White model of race relations highlights the urgent need for scholarship on relationships between racial/ethnic minority groups. This project addresses this emerging need by examining inter-minority stratification between those classified as Black and those classified as Asian by taking advantage of the unique case of Afro and Indo-Caribbean immigrants to the United States. Both groups share similar cultural backgrounds while being classified in the United States into different racial/ethnic groups. The analysis combines a quantitative study of the earnings and residential locations of Afro and Asian Caribbean immigrants to the United States with in-depth interviews of immigrants that seek to better understand their own racial and ethnic identification in their adopted home country. This project will enrich our understanding of how inter-minority relations will likely to reshape 21st Century America's increasingly diverse, and rapidly shifting racial and ethnic landscape.Using the case of Afro- and Indo-Caribbean immigrants, this study thus examines: (1) How Black and Asian phenotypes are being treated in the labor and housing market, controlling for cultural characteristics and human capital (2) How culturally integrated Black and Asian immigrants from the same sending societies react to American racial categories, and (3) What factors predict the kinds of ethno-racial choices that Afro- and Indo-Caribbeans make in response to US racial categories. The first question assesses the effect of racial ascription on socio-economic opportunity. The latter questions examine how racial identification may recursively reshape the prevailing racial hierarchy. A mixed-methods approach is used to answer these questions. Multivariate analyses of data from the American Community Survey's Public Use Micro-Data Samples are used to compare structural incorporation outcomes among Afro- and Indo-Caribbeans in the US. One year of ethnographic observation, and data from 120 extended interviews are used to shed light on how Afro- and Indo-Caribbean immigrants make ethno-racial choices in response to the American racial context. Fieldwork will be conducted in New York, which has long been the primary destination for Afro- and Indo-Caribbean immigrants to the US, and which today still boasts America's largest Caribbean populations. This study will shed valuable light on the evolving nature of racial/ethnic relations in 21st Century America's increasingly diverse mosaic.