Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream

Author Christina Greer, assistant professor of political science at Fordham University (Lincoln Center)
seeks to go beyond the monolithic label "Black-Americans" to look at the issues that unite--and divide--the recent immigrants from native-born.


'Disintegration' Of America's Black Neighborhoods, Eugene Robinson works at the Washington Post where he has served as a foreign editor, an associate editor, a columnist and the London bureau chief.

There was a time when there were agreed-upon "black leaders," when there was a clear "black agenda," when we could talk confidently about "the state of black America"-but not anymore. Not after decades of desegregation, affirmative action, and urban decay; not after globalization decimated the working class and trickle-down economics sorted the nation into winners and losers; not after the biggest wave of black immigration from Africa and the Caribbean since slavery; not after most people ceased to notice — much less care — when a black man and a white woman walked down the street hand in hand. These are among the forces and trends that have had the unintended consequence of tearing black America to pieces.

Transcript 

Book Discussion on Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America

Eugene Robinson talked about his book Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America. In his book he argues that, through decades of desegregation, affirmative action, and immigration, the concept of Black America as a single entity with unified interests and needs has shattered into four distinct groups: a “Mainstream” middle-class majority; a large “Abandoned” minority mired in poverty; a small “Transcendent” elite of wealth and power; and newly “Emergent” groups of mixed-race individuals and recent black immigrants who question what “black” even means. Using historical research, reporting, census data, and polling, he shows how these groups have become so distinct that they view each other with mistrust and apprehension. He discusses debates about affirmative action, the importance of race versus social class, and the questions of whether and in what form racism and the black community endure.