Collective Identity and African American Views of Africa, African Immigrants, and Immigrant

210 Pages·2010·2.25 MB·English

by  Sadie Pendaz

Collective Identity and African American Views of Africa, African Immigrants,
and Immigrant Entitlements

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the graduate school of the University of
Minnesota by:
Sadie Pendaz

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Elizabeth Heger Boyle and Douglas Hartmann
June 2010
Sadie Pendaz © 2010
Acknowledgements

I am especially indebted to my advisors, Elizabeth Heger Boyle and Douglas
Hartmann. Liz, for inviting me aboard her project as a fledgling graduate student and
supporting me with firm, but gentle and guiding nudging, and Doug for providing me
with rich insights and helping me to direct the course of the research and the purpose of
the analysis without losing sight of what I want the project to be about. I cannot thank
you both enough for the endless support and encouragement you have provided along the
way and the many hours in offices and on the phone to help me craft the vision of my
dissertation that I wanted, while piecing together a theoretical and empirical project that
seemed overwhelming at times. Many other graduate school mentors have also been
influential in guiding the course of this project and giving me immeasurable support:
Joseph Gerteis, Michele Wagner, Ryan Allen, Tricia Keaton and Joachim Savelsberg
deserve special mention. I am especially thankful to Joachim for introducing me to
Collective Memory Theory and continuing to inspire my desire to link empirical findings
to theory.
My friends and colleagues, Sarah Flood, Samantha Ammons, Trina Smith and
Dawna Reandeau spent countless hours reading over drafts, discussing interview content
and prodding me toward analysis and writing at all stages of the research and writing
process. Other friends and colleagues offered insights of various sorts along the way,
including: Rob Warren, Trent Alexander, Christopher Pappas, Lary May, Erika Lee,
Erika Busse, Melissa Weiner, Joyce Bell, Katja Guenther, Fortunata Songora Makene,
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Colman Titus Msoka, Penny Edgell, Julie Barrows, Keith Cunnien, Aysegul Kozak, Jon
Smajda, Xuefeng Zhang, Erik Larson, Joshua Page, Paul Croll, Pao Lee, Tiffany Davis,
Tim Ortyl, Vincent Louis, Melanie Daglian, Alisa Tollin, Jeylan Mortimer, Kenise
Kilbride, Sharon Preves, Ahmed Ali, Shane LaMoure and Pamela Wald.
To friends and family who gave me emotional support, love and encouragement I
also owe a debt of thanks: Faye Pendaz, my sister, friend and confidant; my parents, Ruth
and Bill Pendaz and my brother, Harlan Pendaz, are especially owed great thanks. Other
friends and family who supported me include: Mark Hanson, Shirley Sheldon, Lynn and
Nancy Steinke, Barbara Nissen, Robert Nissen, Jon and Gayle Nissen, Andrea Auringer,
Jacob Welde and Scott Keenan. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the various funders and
institutions associated with them: the National Science Foundation, the Eagle Foundation
and the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota for their support with an
Anna Welsch Bright award.
It seems like yesterday when I started recruiting interviewees for this project, but
when I calculate the days and hours spent, much more time has passed. Without the
willingness of my interview subjects, this dissertation would not have been possible.
They are owed a debt of gratitude for allowing me into their lives, their homes and for
sharing their views of the world with me. I am especially grateful for the candidness in
response they offered me about questions that are difficult with which to wrestle. I am
also grateful for the many interviewees who showed an especially acute sense of care and
concern for me, often going out of their way to follow-up with phone calls after the
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interviews to see how I was doing, since I was pregnant during portions of both phases of
interviewing.
When I started this project I lived in South Minneapolis, close to the Cedar-
Riverside neighborhood. Newly married, I lived in an apartment next to a young Oromo
immigrant family and above an African American mother and daughter. My in-laws
wondered how we faired as a young white couple in a building that predominantly
housed blacks, and their curiosity foreshadowed the curiosity that followed me as my
interviewees, friends, family and some colleagues wondered how I faired as a young,
white researcher inquiring about black identity. To those two families, who I have
thought of often while working on this project, I owe much gratitude. I also cannot
overstate the gratitude I owe the man who was my husband at the time, Gregory Steinke,
and our two wonderful children, Jered and Autumn Steinke. Greg, you are my best friend
and without you I never would have started, much less finished, this project.

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Table of Contents
List of Tables vii
List of Figures viii
Chapter 1: Introduction and Chapter Layout 1
Introduction 1
African Americans: Collective Identity, Rights and Resources 5
Summary of Dissertation Chapters 7
Chapter 2: Review of Literature: Race, Nation, Immigration and Theories 12
of Collective Memory

Introduction 12

Inter-Group Contact: Rights and Resources 13

Inter-Group Relations and Conflict 14

The Overlap of Race, Ethnicity and Immigration 20

Theories of Collective Memory 24

African American Collective Identity and Collective Memory 27

Africa’s Impact on African American Collective Memory 29
and Identity

Nationalism 34

Immigrant Reception by American Blacks 39

Black Immigrants: Becoming Black Americans? 41

Chapter 3: Demographics, Methodology and Data Collection 50

Twin Cities Demographics 50

Eastern African Immigrants to the Twin Cities 51

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African Americans in the Twin Cities 52

Interview Data Collection 54

Eastern African Interviewees 55

African American Interviewees 58

Interview Data Analysis 62

Newspaper Data Collection 64

Using Newspapers for Analysis 67

The Minneapolis Spokesman: Historical Context 69

Chapter 4: Collective Memory and African American Engagement with 73
Africa

Introduction 73

Competing Nationalisms 73

Raising Questions 77

Is it Economic? 78

Data Analysis 82

Quantitative Demonstration of Change Over Time, Newspaper 82
References to Africa

Qualitative Analysis of Cultural Newspaper Data, Contextualized 86

Conclusion 114

Chapter 5: African American Perceptions of Intergroup Relations with 118
Eastern Africans

Introduction 118

African American Reception and Impressions of Eastern Africans 119

Cultural and Genealogical Lineage in Africa and America 130
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Other Immigrant Groups in Relation to Eastern Africans 138

Deference to Western African Countries 142
Chapter 6: Affirmative Action and African American Perceptions of 147
Immigrant Entitlements

Introduction 147

Structure, Entitlements and Collective Memory 147

Affirmative Action-For Whose Benefit? 148

Affirmative Action, Class Divides, and Collective Memory 155

Black Immigrants in the United States and African Americans 157

Rights 158

Findings 160

Chapter 7: Conclusions 172

References 181

Appendix A: Interview Questions 198

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List of Tables
Table 1: Eastern African Respondents’ Nationality, Religion and 57
Educational Attainment by Gender

Table 2: African American Respondents’ Political Orientation, 62
Religion and Educational Attainment by Gender

Table 3: References to Africa: Tone 84

Table 4: References to Africa: Content 84

Table 5: Model of the Conception of Rights to Affirmative Action 159

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List of Figures
Chart 1: Racial Composition of Minneapolis, 2000 53

Cartoon 1 95

Cartoon 2 97

Cartoon 3 98

Cartoon 4 99

Cartoon 5 106

Cartoon 6 107

Cartoon 7 108

Cartoon 8 108

Cartoon 9 109

Cartoon 10 109

Cartoon 11 110

Cartoon 12 111

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