Intersectionality and Immigrant Identities in Public Schools: Exploring Gender–Generational Anxieties Among Afro-Caribbean Boys in London and New York

• In Event: 61.035 - Boys' Intersectionality and Schooling: In Pursuit of Interpretative Frameworks, Policy, and Practice

Abstract

On both sides of the Atlantic, popular narratives on Black boys in public schools are steeped in deficit perspectives (Harper, 2013; Sewell, 1997). Such discourses attribute considerably greater attention to the purported ‘failure’ of Black boys than to their success (Gillbourn & Mirza, 2000; Gillbourn, 1997, 2011; Sewell & Majors, 2001; Sewell, 1997). Though critiqued for the historical fixation on failure, contemporary works still do not fully acknowledge how intersectional analysis can provide insights into Black boys’ immigrant identities. This prior research highlights the significance of ethnicity, social class, and generational status in shaping the educational experiences of Afro-Caribbean boys. Drawing on twelve months of ethnographic observation, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews with 16 boys (ages 14-16), this paper gives special attention to the complex cultural worlds first and second-generation Afro-Caribbean boys inhabit, and the ways in which the reputations of their ethnic cultures shape their gender and generational identities in urban public schools.

This cross-national ethnographic study shows how Afro-Caribbean boys construct, negotiate, and perform their identities based on longstanding ethnic stereotypes. Research in the U.S. frames Afro-Caribbeans as a ‘model Black minority’ due to their high rates of economic and occupational attainment relative to African Americans (Butterfield, 2004; Foner, 2001; Kasinitz, et al., 2008; Kasinitz, 1992; Model, 2008; Morrison, 2011; Vickerman, 1999). Conversely, reports in the U.K. represent the same cohort as a largely ‘underachieving minority’ (Mirza, 1992, 2009; Richardson, 2007; Sewell, 1997; Strand, 2012; Youdell, 2003, 2005) as a result of comparatively low educational achievement and occupational advancement. In both contexts, however, Afro-Caribbean boys fare less well than their female counterparts (Lopez, 2002; Mirza, 1992). Among the boys, first-generation boys are deemed more diligent than their second-generation peers (Waters, 1999). The result of this is a weighty gender-generational anxiety that forces second-generation Afro-Caribbean boys in London and New York to assert their social class position (over first-generation boys and Afro-Caribbean girls) in pursuit of social status balance and cultural belonging.

In addition to underscoring the heterogeneity of Afro-Caribbean male identities and experiences, intersectionality gets utilized to examine and complicate practices of ‘identity governance’ between first and second-generation Afro-Caribbean boys. It highlights the ways in which second-generation middle class Afro-Caribbean boys struggle for recognition among their peers in social contexts, but assert their resources and rewards as compensation for their ‘cultural authenticity’ and ‘academic failure.’ An intersectional framework also spotlights the strategies first-generation Afro-Caribbean boys employ to police, stabilize, and sanitize Afro-Caribbean identities, including sexist name-calling, homophobic humor, and native-language literacy in classrooms.

The gender-generational politics Afro-Caribbean boys negotiate necessitates an intersectional analysis to account for the multiple, mixed forces that shape their immigrant identities. In the end, this paper elucidates the intersectionality in immigrant identities by examining the purpose, politics, and polemics of ‘authentic’ cultural belonging. It also points out how individual intersectional identities create conflicts and collaborations in schools that perceive them to be a unified community.

Author

• Derron Wallace, University of Cambridge