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“黑白”肤色界线的视角来理解美国的种族等级，这反映了我们最具历史意义的种族区别轴心的至高无上。然而，旧的黑白模式越来越不足以理解美国的种族和民族类别。种族关系中黑人-白人模式的重要性不断下降，突显出迫切需要研究种族/少数民族群体之间的关系。该项目利用美国非洲裔和印度裔加勒比移民的独特情况，审查被归类为黑人和被归类为亚裔的少数群体之间的阶层划分，以满足这一新出现的需要。这两个群体有着相似的文化背景，但在美国被归类为不同的种族/民族。这项分析结合了对前往美国的非洲裔和亚裔加勒比移民的收入和居住地点的量化研究，以及对移民的深入采访，这些移民试图更好地了解他们在第二故乡的种族和民族认同。这个项目将丰富我们对少数族裔之间的关系可能如何重塑21世纪美国日益多样化和快速变化的种族和民族格局的理解。本研究以非洲和印度裔加勒比移民为例，研究：(1)黑人和亚洲人在劳动力和住房市场上如何受到对待，控制文化特征和人力资本；(2)来自同一派遣社会的文化融合的黑人和亚洲移民如何对美国种族类别做出反应；以及(3)哪些因素预测了非洲人和印度裔加勒比人因应美国种族类别而做出的种族-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当时的种族等级。我们使用混合方法来回答这些问题。对来自美国社区调查的公共使用微观数据样本的数据进行了多变量分析，以比较美国非洲裔和印度裔加勒比人的结构性整合结果。通过一年的人种学观察，以及120次广泛访谈的数据，作者揭示了非洲裔和印度裔加勒比移民是如何根据美国种族背景做出种族选择的。田野调查将在纽约进行，长期以来，纽约一直是非洲裔和印度裔加勒比移民到美国的主要目的地，今天，纽约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马赛克中种族/民族关系的演变本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.