Boston Globe

Immigrants reshaping black experience

By Cindy Rodriguez, Globe Staff, 8/15/2001

Fueled by a huge wave of immigration in the 1990s, the black population of Massachusetts is now more than a third foreign born, a demographic change that is redefining what it means to be black in the Bay State, according to a Globe analysis of Census figures.

Coming from places as varied as Jamaica and Nigeria, the new immigrants arrive with an array of languages, cuisines, religions, music, and ways of socializing, creating an ethnic stew in urban Massachusetts much as European immigrants did in white neighborhoods a century ago.

In Boston, just as in New York and Miami, the new black immigrants live alongside African-Americans, forming diverse pan-African enclaves - but also stirring tensions in such places as Mattapan, where immigrants outnumber African-Americans.

''What this may mean is that the term African-American may now be a misnomer,'' said James Jennings, professor of urban and environmental policy at Tufts University. ''That's why I use the term `black.'''

Even though most Haitians, Jamaicans, Nigerians, and Somalis consider themselves black, that doesn't mean they automatically connect with African-Americans. Some of them view American blacks as lacking a strong work ethic. On the flip side, some African-Americans believe the immigrants are so work-hungry, they are taking away their jobs.

''The intermix of politics and ethnicity and race in Massachusetts is much more complex today than ever,'' said Marilyn Halter, a historian at Boston University. ''Some of the political objectives may diverge. Questions about bilingual education. The whole issue of'' citizenship ''is fairly irrelevant to African-Americans.''

According to an analysis of the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, a compilation of statistics gathered from a sampling of 700,000 homes nationwide in 2000, black immigrants represent about 36 percent of the black population in Massachusetts.

The West Indian population grew by 80 percent, to about 88,300 people, the largest number of whom are Haitians, who now number more than 49,000.

And the sub-Saharan African population more than doubled to 25,600 people, excluding Cape Verdeans, who are more likely to see themselves as multiracial than black.

The West Indian population and sub-Saharan population combined is about 114,000, more than a third of the state's 318,300 black population.

Those data come from a question on ancestry. But even the data for the foreign-born population, broken down by world region, yielded similar results: 70,000 West Indians and 42,000 Africans, 35 percent of the black population.

Though data wasn't broken down for cities, most of those immigrants in the Greater Boston area are concentrated in such places as Somerville, Cambridge, and the Boston neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Roxbury, and Dorchester.

As those communities grow, so does friction. But the tension between African-Americans and black immigrants is mild compared with the clashes between the Brahmin WASPs and Irish at the turn of the 20th century in which shopkeepers advertising jobs would put up ''Irish Need Not Apply'' signs.

But the resentment is real.

''They think we come here to take their jobs,'' Hazel Nembhard, 40, of Jamaica said of American blacks in her Dorchester neighborhood. ''This black lady was telling my sister the other day, `Go back home to your country.' She told her, `You go back to your Section 8''' subsidized housing.

For their part, some African-Americans believe that West Indians, in particular, try to deny their blackness by cloaking themselves in national pride, calling themselves Jamaican or Trinidadian rather than black.

Views of race differ for both groups: Black immigrants say African-Americans exaggerate racial conflict in the United States and frame issues solely through the lens of the Civil Rights struggle. African-Americans say the immigrants don't take time to understand the historical oppression of blacks in America and its legacy.

The stereotypes on both sides have existed since the first big waves of black immigrants arrived in Boston in the 1950s, producing some of the nation's largest concentrations of black immigrant communities.

But the last decade produced one of the biggest influxes of black immigrants to Massachusetts to date, creating conflict as they compete with African-Americans for entry-level jobs.

Barry Bluestone, a labor economist at Northeastern University who helped conduct a study of black immigrants and African-Americans in Greater Boston for a book last year called ''The Boston Renaissance,'' found that on average foreign-born blacks earn $2,000 a year more than native-born blacks.

The mean hourly wage of foreign-born blacks who don't have a college degree is $10.52, vs. $9.56 for native-born blacks. They also tend to work longer hours and are more likely to have a second job, Bluestone said.

Bluestone found that 42 percent of American blacks surveyed believed immigration in general would have a negative impact on their economic opportunity.

Boston City Councilor Charles Yancey, who is African-American, said the tension will subside as the immigrant population assimilates. He's seen no real clashes between the groups, both in his constituency, but acknowledges that there are different political interests.

But others see the chafing more sharply.

''Blacks accept West Indians until there's a conflict,'' said Ron Wilkerson, a 39-year-old GED student from Dorchester, who is African-American and dropped out of school in his junior year when his brother was fatally stabbed. ''They come here and hustle and they'll have, like, three jobs. Blacks will say they can't get a job because of it. I've heard that many times. I would say that they're copping an excuse.''

Mary Lewis, 44, an immigrant from Trinidad who has worked for 14 years as a state mental health specialist, is in Wilkerson's GED class at The Log School in Dorchester.

At a table with other female immigrants from the Caribbean, within earshot of Wilkerson, Lewis was more pointed in her comment. ''We are proof that you can make it in America. Racism is an excuse,'' she said.

She said immigrants like her buy homes, save money, and send their children to good schools, and African-Americans become jealous of them. She doesn't distinguish between middle-class and poor African-Americans; she said her views are shaped based on the people around her.

Robert L. Hall, associate professor of African-American studies and history at Northeastern University, said he sees a black-black divide on campus. Black students from the Caribbean don't mesh with African-Americans.

But when a black immigrant ''is accosted by a police officer, ... let's say they're moving a stereo into their dorm room and an officer stops them, then they discover race,'' Hall said.

Leaving countries with high unemployment, few opportunities, and, in some cases, political oppression, black immigrants see the United States as a land of endless opportunity, Hall said, unlike native blacks who are acutely aware of even subtle racism.

''Immigrants generally are willing to put up with stuff,'' Hall said. ''For them this is a haven and land of opportunity. They don't have the same reservoir backlog of bone-deep resentment of this country.''

For the divide to subside, American blacks will have to ''get outside of our parochialism'' to better understand nationalist pride of immigrants, Hall said. And once immigrants assimilate and see the racism that their American peers face, ''it will result in a bond of solidarity.''

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2001