Investigating Ivy

This qualitative study examined how race and class shaped the college choice process and collegiate experiences of Black undergraduates attending Ivy League Institutions. Findings revealed that although social class did not play a significant role in participants’ college choice process, robust financial aid packaging significantly impacted their decision to attend a highly selective university. Racial identity was largely viewed by participants as a vehicle to admit more Black Immigrant students than Black Native students in order to achieve institutional diversity/affirmative action goals. Prevalent racialized incidents and institutional racism shaped participants’ collegiate experiences. The findings of this study are expected to have implications for minority recruitment, college choice, access and equity, as well as higher education diversity initiatives.

Maternal perceptions and concerns about children’s weight status and diet quality: a study among Black immigrant families

Objective: To identify factors influencing Black immigrant mothers’ perceptions and concerns about child weight, and to compare children’s diet quality according to these perceptions and concerns. Design: Mothers’ perceptions and concerns about child weight were assessed with sex-specific figure rating scales and the Child Feeding Questionnaire, respectively. Participants’ weights and heights were measured and characterized using World Health Organization references. Children’s dietary intakes were estimated using a 24-hour dietary recall. Children’s diet quality was evaluated using the relative proportion of their energy intake provided by ultra-processed products, which were identified with the NOVA classification. Chi-square tests, multivariate logistic regressions and t-tests were performed. Setting: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Participants: Black immigrant mothers of Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean origin (n=186) and their 6-12-year-old children. Results: Among mothers, 32.4% perceived their child as having overweight while 48.4% expressed concerns about child weight. Girls and children with overweight or obesity were significantly more likely to be perceived as having overweight by their mothers than boys and normal-weight children, respectively. Mothers of children living with obesity, but not overweight, were significantly more likely to be concerned about their child’s weight than mothers of normal-weight children. Children’s diet quality did not differ according to mothers’ perceptions and concerns. Conclusion: Children’s gender and weight status were major determinants of perceptions and concerns about child weight among Black immigrant mothers. Including knowledge about mothers’ perceptions and concerns about child weight will help nutrition professionals develop interventions tailored to specific family needs within the context of their cultural backgrounds.

Making Limeade: Finding Home in Othering, Isolation, and Life at the Border

This autoethnographic piece highlights the tensions inherent in my experiences as a second-generation immigrant of Jamaican descent. I draw on my experiences to address how my positionalities as Black, immigrant, and woman push up against the politics of U.S. academic institutions. Specifically, I explore (a) the ways in which I experienced othering in educational institutions as a transnational Black girl/woman and how those experiences informed my career path, (b) how I have navigated tensions related to my minoritized identities as a university professor, and (c) ways that I attempt to resist my displacement through my presence and pedagogy.

Does Racism Discriminate? Racial and Ethnic Discrimination Among Nigerians and Jamaicans in Houston Texas

As a result of more racially inclusive immigration policies in the U.S., the African and Caribbean population has increased. Thus far, scholarly inquiry on Black immigrants have focused on their incorporation into the racial hierarchy, their experiences with racism, and their relationships with African Americans. While beneficial, these studies overlook the impact of ethnic discrimination for Black immigrants. Although all individuals of African descent share similar racialized experiences in the U.S., I hypothesize that diverse Black immigrant groups endure unique discriminatory experiences because of their ethnic identities. Thus, through in-depth interviews with 27 Nigerian and 20 Jamaican respondents, this paper explores Black immigrants’ experiences with racial and ethnic discrimination. I found that, regardless of ethnic background, 80% of my Nigerian and Jamaican respondents encountered racism. In contrast, ethnic discrimination varied between my Nigerian and Jamaican respondents. My Nigerian respondents were more likely to report their encounters with ethnic discrimination. These experiences ranged from being accused of internet scamming to being mocked for having an accent. On the other hand, not only were my Jamaican respondents less likely to report ethnic discrimination, but they were also more likely to see their ethnicity as an advantage.

From Haiti to Detroit Through Black Immigrant Languages and Literacies

This article undertakes a textual analysis of an autobiographically informed novel, American Street, to analyze the process of identity formation of a Black Haitian immigrant youth in the United States. Black immigrant youth remain an understudied demographic in literacy research compared with their Latinx and Asian immigrant counterparts. The goal of this analysis is to provide insights into the role of languages and literacies for Black immigrant youth in (re)constructing their identities in nations like the United States. Analysis revealed the significance of one youth’s resistance to raciolinguistic ideologies, reliance on her Haitian faith literacies, and deployment of multiliteracy practices in (re)constructing her identity. We call for increased research that illuminates the complexity of the language and literacy processes involved in Black immigrant youth’s negotiations with identity in new homelands, and offer textual analysis as an underutilized but promising inquiry method for generating such knowledge. The article also offers pedagogical implications.

Keeping it in the family: Cultural socialization among Haitian American families

The broad areas of ethnic and racial socialization have been studied as essential aspects of immigrant and African American families. Yet, there has been less understanding of how these processes intersect, specifically within second-generation Black immigrant families. This article draws on 41 interviews and 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork to explore how ethnically-identified Haitian American parents transmit ethnicity and prepare their children to navigate systems of racial oppression. Findings demonstrate how these processes operate concurrently within second-generation Black immigrant families amidst parental motivation for transmitting ethnicity across generations and the realities of raising Black children in a majority-minority city.