Socialization, Culture, and Identities of Black Immigrant Children: What Educators Need to Know and Do

This article has synthesize the past two decades of research literature focusing on the life experience of Caribbean and African Black immigrants and their children and the process that they have been incorporated into American society and into its educational system. This article analyzes the social-cultural-economic causes of variation in Black immigrant children’s identity deconstruction and reconstruction, including Black immigrant youth’s attitudes towards racism and discrimination, their educational aspirations and educational performance, and the social and cultural resources present within ethnic communities. Three major issues relevant to Black immigrant children’s education were probed: “Triple disadvantages” vs. “model Blacks”; identities, differentiation and destination; and Black immigrants and American Blacks: diversity and solidarity. The authors have focused their recommendations on the transformation of educators’ perceptions and conceptions, on adjustment and innovation in educational policymaking, and on the change and reform in teachers’practice, schools’outreach efforts, and cultural environment.