BOOK SYNOPSIS

ISBN: 0814756913

In 1965, the Hart-Cellar Immigration Reform Act ushered in a huge wave of immigrants from across the Caribbean—Jamaicans, Cubans, Haitians, and Dominicans, among others. How have these immigrants and their children negotiated languages of race and ethnicity in American social and cultural politics? As black immigrants, to which America do they assimilate?
Constructing Black Selves explores the cultural production of second-generation Caribbean immigrants in the United States after World War II as a prism for understanding the formation of Caribbean American identity. Lisa D. McGill pays particular attention to music, literature, and film, centering her study around the figures of singer-actor Harry Belafonte, writers Paule Marshall, Audre Lorde, and Piri Thomas, and merengue-hip-hop group Proyecto Uno.

Illuminating the ways in which Caribbean identity has been transformed by mass migration to urban landscapes, as well as the dynamic and sometimes conflicted relationship between Caribbean American and African American cultural politics, Constructing Black Selves is an important contribution to studies of twentieth-century U.S. immigration, African American and Afro-Caribbean history and literature, and theories of ethnicity and race.

The lessons gleaned from Constructing Black Selves present a unique opportunity to advance the discussion surrounding immigration reform in the United States. The book is more than just a historical recollection of facts and events. Rather, it provides a window for understanding the immigration debate in a new light. Constructing Black Selves gives readers an opportunity to share the experience of second-generation artists and intellectuals who devised divergent strategies for negotiating American society. Through this shared experience, readers come to understand that the immigration debate impacts much more than just jobs and the economy, but tellingly American culture and identity politics.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Praise for Constructing Black Selves