African-Americans vs. black immigrants: Do institutions of higher learning give preference to foreign blacks?
According to studies, black immigrants and the American children of black immigrants are enrolling at colleges and university, at an exponentially higher rate than non-immigrant black American applicants.
Yet, there are some who dispute the findings of these studies, deeming their calculation processes invalid.
In a 2007 response article to The Washington Post report, Dr. Rebecca Goldin, Director of Research at Statistical Assesment Service, argued that the campus diversity study missed certain demographics and questioned whether the admissions data was adequately examined.
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“Comparing this group to African-Americans is like comparing apples to oranges,” wrote Goldin. “The Washington Post should exercise a little more restraint in making claims of bias. Especially when many of the ‘elite foreigners’ are actually American.”
As Goldin touched on in her remarks, a larger debate that stems from this comparison of black natives and immigrants is the fluctuating label of “African-American.” Who qualifies as such?
“Some black Americans argue that black immigrants… and the children of immigrants, like [President] Obama and [Colin] Powell, are most certainly African-American,” reads a 2004 New York Times article addressing the evolving definition. “Yet some immigrants and their children prefer to be called African or Nigerian-American or Jamaican-American, depending on their countries of origin. Other people prefer the term black, which seems to include everyone, regardless of nationality.”
While the attendance of blacks of foreign ancestry at universities through affirmative action may be politically complicated, perhaps the expansion of the definition of African-American to include all people of the African diaspora could be for the benefit of American society at large. Washington Post reporter Curtis Valentine encourages us to see a connection between the groups, instead of seeing blacks attending college as an ethnic competition.
“The answers to our generation’s greatest problems are within reach if we are willing to learn from one another,” Valentine writes in his recent Post story about the black education gap. “We can close this gap if we recognize that those who came before us left a plan for success that is being executed by both U.S.-born and first- and second-generational blacks every day.”
Follow Patrice Peck on Twitter at @SpeakPatrice and Tumblr
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