African American Communities

Identifying African American Communities

The persistence of discrimination and the ongoing struggle against its consequences are also evident in immigrant communities' attempts to disassociate themselves from African Americans, as with West Indians living in the San Francisco Bay Area, who feel that “foreign blacks” are more acceptable to the white majority. Discrimination, especially when based on skin color, tends [Page 10]to lump together Afro-Latino culture groups, Caribbean blacks, and black Puerto Ricans when referring to black communities, a fact that makes it all the more necessary to contextualize any discussion of African American history and community development.

When attempting to properly represent any community, we are wise not to minimize the existence of multiple identities. How people self-identify and what leads them to speak in terms of “we” are critically important to our understanding of their socially constructed reality. Those who may be referred to here and in other texts as African Americans may actually self-identify as black American, colored, Afro American, African, or simply American. Significant in this complex situation is the existence of a “shifting nature and hybridity of cultural identities” (Mattingly, Lawlor, & Jacobs-Huey 2002, p. 744). African Americans are constantly stereotyped in both popular representations and scholarly work; to avoid stereotyping it is important to recognize diversity as well as commonality.

According to the scholar Michael Williams, “The African American community is distinctive partly because it is maintained as a social unit by power structures external to it” (Williams 1993, p. 360). However, to the extent that a community is an association of people who share a common identity, are located within a specific geographic location, and share a common language and cultural heritage, there are a number of very viable and identifiable African American communities in the United States. For some, racial affinity is the predominant characteristic; for others, it is class mobility or occupational niche. In some cases, African American communities have been born as a result of “white flight.” Evidence suggests that families and churches have been the most important sources of support and resources in black communities. Participation in churches is often an integral part of the upbringing of children and is an important means of creating a sense of group solidarity. Churches provide both social and spiritual functions; they are known to provide a venue in which personal identity can be developed and group culture expressed.

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