The Culture of Distance: Rethinking Black Ethnic Relations

• In Event: 384 - Regular Session. Race and Ethnicity: Racialization across Diverse Groups

Abstract

In the sociology of immigration, the puzzle surrounding the case of black immigrants usually revolves around how they negotiate race and ethnicity in relation to African Americans. Immigrants are said to set themselves apart from native blacks, to avoid downward assimilation, by employing the rhetoric of distinction in their values and culture. While many scholars focus on how such cultural narratives lend themselves to social mobility, few have interrogated how and what elements of immigrant culture are used to mediate relations with an array of ethnic groups. Using ethnographic data from three Jamaican cultural sites– a cricket club, restaurant, and cultural festival, I find that these immigrants use distinct elements of their culture to develop relationships with co-ethnics but they also capitalize on this distinction to incorporate non-Jamaicans at the events they host. This paper makes two claims: One, the social distancing framework implies that black immigrants only have a denigrated sense of blackness when they evoke cultural distinction. Thus limiting our understanding of how immigrants use their culture. And two, markers of cultural distinction – namely music, food, and sport - can serve in a myriad of ways to mediate relations within and between ethnic groups – including bridging and distancing.

Author

• Marcelle Mandisa Medford-Lee, University of Chicago