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                                       Details for article 2 of 10 found articles
 
 
  Black spaces, black places: Strategic assimilation and identity construction in middle-class suburbia
 
 
Title: Black spaces, black places: Strategic assimilation and identity construction in middle-class suburbia
Author: Lacy, Karyn R.
Appeared in: Ethnic and racial studies
Paging: Volume 27 (2004) nr. 6 pages 908-930
Year: 2004-11
Contents: While white ethnics and immigrants of colour have been studied in terms of their attempts to assimilate into the American mainstream, sociologists assume that ongoing racial discrimination obviates the need for an extensive examination of the actual assimilation trajectories of middle-class blacks. Many middle-class blacks travel from the black to the white world rather than existing exclusively in one racially distinct environment. Yet, we do not fully understand how middle-class blacks conceptualize their own integration into American society. Drawing on data collected through in-depth interviews with middle-class blacks and ethnographic research in a white and a black suburb, I establish the link between an affinity for black spaces and the alternative assimilation trajectories of middle-class blacks. I find that middle-class blacks engage in a variant of segmented assimilation, privileging the black world as a site for socializing even if they live in a white suburb. This selective pattern of assimilation, what I term strategic assimilation, suggests that this population of middle-class blacks does not perceive itself as permanently constrained to the bottom rung of a racial hierarchy.
Publisher: Routledge
Source file: Elektronische Wetenschappelijke Tijdschriften
 
 

                             Details for article 2 of 10 found articles
 
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