Being Black and international in the United States: Navigating the contours of race and citizenship status in America

Akinrinola, Ademola Alabi

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115468 Copy

Description

Title

Being Black and international in the United States: Navigating the contours of race and citizenship status in America

Author(s)

Akinrinola, Ademola Alabi

Issue Date

2022-04-18

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

McCarthy, Cameron

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

McCarthy, Cameron

Committee Member(s)

• Zamani-Gallaher, Eboni
• Hood, Denice
• Mabokela, Reitu

Department of Study

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Black African international students
• International students
• International students of color
• Race
• American higher education
• Intersectionality
• Phenomenology
• Multiple Black identities
• Black students

Abstract

For many Black African international students, the statement, “I never knew I was Black until I came to the U.S.” echoes the dilemma and complexity of race, Blackness and ethnic diversification and multiple Black identities in America. This is because, for the most part in Central, Eastern, Southern (except South Africa), and Western Africa, social identities are defined along the lines of ethnicity, religion, gender, or socioeconomic status. So, many Black African international students experience a sudden Blackness, one which imposes a Black racial identity on them, upon their arrival in America—and consequently makes them (potentially) targeted for anti-Black prejudice, racism, and discrimination within and outside their campus environment. This dissertation project is a qualitative study that employed a phenomenological inquiry approach to explore, understand, and describe the phenomenon of Blackness among five Black African international students at Africana University, a Research 1, large public university in Midwestern United States. I conducted semi-structured, individual interviews and focus group with five participants from Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, and Nigeria to gather data for the study. Participants met the following inclusion criteria: (a) self-identify racially as Black; (b) self-identify as ethnically originating from an African country; (c) live in America legally on a U.S. student visa, and (d) have stayed in the U.S. for at least four years. The study finds that Black African international students (a) experience race- and language-based discrimination on their university campus because of the color of their skin, and their ethnic/national identity as Africans; and (b) navigate a tripartite consciousness at the intersectionality of their social identities as Black (racially; like African Americans), Black African (ethnically/nationally; unlike white Africans and African Americans), and international (citizenship status; unlike domestic students). The results of this study corroborate extant studies on Black African international students and Black international students (from the Americas) and complement scholarly literature by calling attention to the marginalization of the topic of race in global studies in education scholarship, outlining its implications for policy, scholarship, and international student offices.

Graduation Semester

2022-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Ademola A. Akinrinola

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