Black Americans Are Both

As a Black American studying racial-ethnic identity development and mental health among Black women of varying ethnicities in NYC, I find myself thinking about my ethnic identity often. 

I am the daughter of a Black woman from Baltimore and a Black man from Detroit. My father is the first generation removed from the Deep South (Alabama), and my mother's family (which has been a bit more challenging to trace) has generational ties to the Chesapeake Region (think between Norfolk, VA, and Baltimore, MD). 

The complexities of the Black American experience are very clear yet consistently understated. To briefly summarize: Forced migration (chattel slavery), reconstruction (attempted self-sufficiency and PTSD), the “great migration” (the great escape from racialized terror, economic exploitation, and violence), and then the deep spiritual and emotional curiosity to trace and uncover all of those experiences (a return to Home). When I say home, I don’t mean anywhere outside the US. I mean the Deep South.

In my work, I argue that because of white supremacy (the social, political, and economic dominance of people racialized as white) and anti-Blackness (actions or behaviors that diminish, exclude, or undermine the full participation of Black people) within and outside of academia, Black Americans are oversimplified and represented through a monolithic lens - meaning the experiences of approximately 700,000 people from 5 distinct regions are minimized to ONE experience. 

What most people don’t understand is that ‘Black American’ is BOTH an ethnicity and a pan-ethnic group. Black Americans are both an ethnic group and a pan-ethnic group, given that the history of chattel slavery, displacement, and racialization within the US has dissolved widely understood recognition of the ethnic variation within the group. Pan-ethnic groups are composed of various ethnic groups that are lumped together and racialized as the same by outsiders. Within these pan-ethnic groups, members acknowledge and negotiate internal ethnic boundaries. An ethnic group is defined as “having real or putative common ancestry, memories of a shared historical past, and a cultural focus on one or more symbolic elements defined as the epitome of their peoplehood (Bashi- Treitler 2013:20).” Understanding that Black Americans are a pan-ethnic group allows us to challenge narratives that all Balck Americans across the US South, Mid-West, Northeast, and the West coats share the same experiences. We have regional specificities that need to be centered. An example of this is how Black Americans eat fried fish, but the type of fish and the preparation styles vary by distinct regionally based cultural practices.

Black Americans from Galveston, TX, have distinct customs, food preparations, and culture from Black Americans from Charleston, SC, Cleveland, OH, Baltimore, MD, or St. Louis, MO. Just because other people refuse to acknowledge these differences doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. 

When people challenge the richness of Black American culture, I see it as an expression of them being indoctrinated into white supremacist ideals and how racialization into the US often requires the minimization of the Black American experience. To become “American” often means adopting anti-Black attitudes toward Black Americans. Because of this indoctrination and racialization, it’s a commonly held thought among white people, Black people who have a history of voluntary migration, and non-Black people of color that Black Americans are all the same. This sameness comes with a myriad of stereotypes and common assumptions.

As the Black population in the US continues to diversify, I believe it is more important now than ever for Black American voices to reflect the vastness of our experiences and for us to push back against narratives that suggest our story starts with chattel slavery and ends with economic and political disenfranchisement. 

I don’t know about y'all, but as I continue to move throughout my career, I see fewer and fewer Black people, but I also see even fewer Black Americans. I’ll talk more about the economic and political impact in other pieces. But I bring this up because I’ve been spinning my wheels on how to address “this gap” within my day-to-day life. So, while I work on a profoundly intellectual process like writing a dissertation, I am also going on a journey to interact with my people meaningfully - both figuratively and literally. I intentionally speak with my family members and elders about our family stories and recipes. I am curating my reading lists with Black American writers across decades.

I look forward to sharing this journey with yall. 

Over the next few months, I plan to share a series of three-minute(ish) essays discussing elements of racial-ethnic identity development through reflections on Black American foodways, my relationships with Black people of other ethnicities, the power of cultivating solidarity across ethnicity, the toll (emotional, spiritual, mental) of doing this work, and why diaspora wars are a trap.