Racial and Ethnic Socialization of Caribbean Immigrant Youth Across Home and School Contexts

• In Event: Across the Spectrum: The Implications of Racial Socialization for Diverse Children and Youth

Abstract

The recent rise in immigrants of color to the United States shapes vastly the terrain of U.S. schools. However, little is known about the K-12 educational experiences of Black immigrants and how these immigrants learn to adapt to issues of race and racism in the United States. This paper examines the role of both parents and educators in the racial socialization of 1.5 and second-generation Black immigrant youth of Caribbean descent and describes the distinct racial and ethnic socialization practices of Caribbean immigrant parents and the conflicting messages youth receive at school.

Critical race theorists posit that racism is embedded into the fabric of the U.S. and masked by institutionalized practices perceived as “neutral” and “objective” (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995). According to Yosso (2002), racism is not only present in schools, but perpetuated through the very process of schooling. Black youth must contend with messages regarding race that threatens healthy identity development. Racial socialization frameworks help us understand how African American parents help their children to conceptualize the role of race in their lives and build healthy identities in the face of racial discrimination (Bentley, Adams, & Stevenson, 2008; Caughy, Randolph, & O’Campo, 2002; Hughes & Chen, 1999). This process is especially complicated for Black immigrants who have limited experiences with U.S. racial constructs and racism.

Participants were recruited from Morristown Middle School located in a racially diverse, middle-class community. Ten students and nine families participated in the study and were chosen on the basis of self-identification as Black immigrants from the English-speaking Caribbean. Qualitative data collection methods included observations of class sessions and extra-curricular activities. All students participated in semi-structured interviews and weekly focus groups that centered around the kinds of messages parents shared with their children regarding race, ethnicity, and nationality and how they experienced their race and ethnicity in various contexts. Focus group meetings served to examine group identities and accounts regarding racial and ethnic socialization experiences. Five parents voluntarily participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews. These data were transcribed, coded, and triangulated.

Findings suggest that Caribbean immigrant parents did not rely heavily on racial socialization messages in preparing their children to navigate the world, but instead ethnic socialization messages they attributed to their Caribbean heritage, which included hard work, manners and respect, interdependence, and educational achievement. These values were seen as pivotal in advancing socioeconomic mobility with little acknowledgment of whether and how minority status affected them. Antithetically, the school inculcated in immigrant youth ideas of racial inferiority. In school, Caribbean youth learned that Black students, regardless of ethnicity, were not considered academically adept, were not deemed valuable members of the school community, and were more deviant. As we consider educational policy and means for closing the achievement gap, more attention must be paid to school practices that reinforce social and academic marginalization through racial socialization messages conveyed to immigrant students in schools.

Author

• Chonika Coleman King, The University of Tennessee - Knoxville