African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
406 p, In the first systematic study of the politics and culture of the Afro-Caribbean migration to the U.S., historian Wintson James explains the enigma of political radicalism among Caribbean migrants. This important work shows that streams of Afro-Caribbean migration constituted a vibrant link between African Americans and the continent from which their ancestors were wrenched centuries ago. 256 pp;
Examines the depiction of first-wave West Indian immigrants to the United States in Black print culture in the early 20th century. The authors conduct a series of content analyses of four newspapers that had wide circulation in the Black community between 1910 and 1940. Each content analysis serves as an empirical test one of four common hypotheses about ethnic differentiation between West Indians and African Americans: (a) the group consciousness hypothesis, (b) the racial nationalism hypothesis, (c) the radical politics hypothesis, and (d) the model minority hypothesis. The authors find very little empirical support for either the group consciousness hypothesis or the racial nationalism hypothesis and find only a modicum of support for the radical politics hypothesis. Finally, the authors find evidence confirming the model minority hypothesis. They also find that the Black press presented an accurate portrayal of the West Indian immigrants' socioeconomic advantages to native-born Blacks.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
202 p, Examines the West Indian immigrant community in Honduras through the development of the country's fruit industry, revealing that West Indians fought to maintain their identities as workers, Protestants, blacks, and English speakers in the midst of popular Latin American nationalistic notions of mestizaje, or mixed-race identity.
