% Immigrant Blacks in US Colleges

Parents Forum
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<p>About a year ago, black Harvard professor Lani Guinier and other black faculty and administrators at Harvard commented that a very high proportion of black students at Harvard were immigrant African/Caribbean or offspring of such immigrants.</p>

<p>The administrators and professors expressed concern that Harvard was not doing a good enough job of recruiting blacks who represent the majority of African Americans in the country, US born blacks who are not offspring of immigrants. </p>

<p>Since then, I have noticed that some of the applications that S got for diversity weekends at colleges had questions designed to find out whether his parents were American born. My impression is that colleges now are attempting to make sure that African American, nonimmigrant offspring, are among their recruits.</p>

<p>Interesting to see that the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education now has researched the proportion of immigrant black students and immigrants' offspring in US schools.</p>

<p>"Large Percentage of Black Students at U.S. Colleges and Graduate Schools Are Foreign Born</p>

<p>Data obtained by JBHE from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that a significant percentage of all black students in K-12 schools, in college, and in graduate school have parents that were not born in the United States. Moreover, a very large percentage of black college and graduate students are foreign born.</p>

<p>Here are the figures: In 2003, 13.6 percent of all black students in K-12 education in the United States had at least one parent who was born in a foreign country. This is almost double the rate for whites. Yet only 3.5 percent of black children in K-12 education in the United States were born outside this country. Still this is more than double the rate for whites.</p>

<p>The percentage of foreign-born blacks rises significantly when we examine enrollments at the college and graduate school level. For undergraduate black students in 2003, 22.2 percent had at least one parent born outside of the United States. More than 15 percent of all black undergraduate students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities were born in a foreign land. This is four times the rate for whites. Less than 4 percent of white undergraduates were foreign born.</p>

<p>At the graduate level, 22.8 percent of the enrolled black students had one or both parents who were foreign born. For enrolled black graduate students, 16.5 percent, or one of every six, were born outside the U.S. For whites, 7.6 percent of all graduate students were foreign born."
<a href="http://www.jbhe.com/latest/index012606.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.jbhe.com/latest/index012606.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>sigh. there goes my hook. lol.</p>

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<p>wannagotocornell, are you foreign or the offspring of immigrants? If so, what country?</p>

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<p>yea, i'm a offspring of immigrants from nigeria. hey, i'm on nappturality too. weird. lol.</p>

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<p>Both of my parents are from Jamaica. I visit nappturality every week :)</p>

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<p>Both my parents are from Ghana. I never heard of nappturality...</p>

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<p>Nappturality is a hair website for those who have gone natural aka stopped relaxing.</p>

<p>Really...it's a great website if you are natural. Tons of posts and information.</p>

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<p>I wonder what percentage of black college students are actually bi-racial, or multi-racial. My own D is bi-racial, and she knows of a number of other students at her school who are black mixed with something else.</p>

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<p>I'm wondering how the JBHE categorizes the numeroud blacks who happen to be hispanic? </p>

<p>FWIW, I still do not understand why some consider it important to attempt to create additional sub-groups among black students, or even worse attempting to create a hierarchy or pecking order. </p>

<p>Unless I am mistaken, when it comes to colleges, the requirements are to be a US citizen or premament resident and be black. I do not believe that there are geographical limitations. </p>

<p>Do we need to make a difference between the daughter of basketball star Olajuwon and the Germany-born daughter of a black serviceman? If French citizen Tony Parker of the Spurs were to marry Eva Longoria, how would their offspring be categorized </p>

<p>So what is the big deal?</p>

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<p>The big deal about sub-grouping is that most children of immigrants are raised with the idea of "Education is the end all be all", because that was how it was like in their parent's respective countries. Most African-Americans (without immigrant parents) don't have that idea about education pounded into their head from birth. Also, the distinction between the sub-groups of blacks, helps others to understand why some black people perform better on standardized tests than other black people. Of course there are always exceptions, but that is the general trend.</p>

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<p>"FWIW, I still do not understand why some consider it important to attempt to create additional sub-groups among black students, or even worse attempting to create a hierarchy or pecking order. "</p>

<p>Because Affirmative Action initially was designed to assist people who had been hurt by the discrimination practiced in this country. That discrimination still is hurting people who are black, US born and not children of immigrants.</p>

<p>That is the group of blacks who are still feeling the effects of the fact that their grandparents were shut out of colleges and in some casae high schools due to race, were redlined from neighborhoods where property appreciated, could not get the full benefits of the GI bill, could not get into some lucrative fields that were dominated by trade unions that did not let blacks enter. Those black people also grew up in a US in which there were virtually no positive black images of black people including in the mainstream press, on TV, etc. </p>

<p>All of these things have a major impact in how such African Americans regard education today and how they do educationally. Many of the families do not regard education as the big ticket to the good life that immigrants regard education as. Why? It historically has not been true for black people in this country. One could be an extremely highly educated black person and still legally shut out of most jobs. </p>

<p>In other ways, society also had been giving black people the message that education wasn't important. That's why their schools had been open only 6 months a year in parts of the south (so the black students could plant and harvest crops. White schools were open the full 9 months). </p>

<p>An excellent source of info about how how American born blacks have been disadvantaged beyond what most people realize is in the book by Columbia professor Ira Kaznelson, "When Affirmative Action was White." '</p>

<p>From a review:
"Katznelson argues that the prehistory of affirmative action was supported by Southern Democrats who were actually devoted to preserving a strict racial hierarchy, and that the resulting legislation was explicitly designed for the majority: its policies made certain, he argues, that whites received the full benefit of rising prosperity while blacks were deliberately left out. Katznelson supports this startling claim ingeniously, showing, for instance, that while the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act was a great boon for factory workers, it did nothing for maids and agricultural laborers—employment sectors dominated by blacks at the time—at the behest of Southern politicians.</p>

<p>" Similarly, Katznelson makes a strong case that the GI Bill, an ostensibly color-blind initiative, unfairly privileged white veterans by turning benefits administration over to local governments, thereby ensuring that Southern blacks would find it nearly impossible to participate."</p>

<p>Link to the Amazon site: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393052133/104-6400021-5675151?v=glance&n=283155%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393052133/104-6400021-5675151?v=glance&n=283155&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Anyway, both my husband and I have done well educationally and professionally, and it is not a coincidence that both of us are offspring of immigrant blacks. My father was Jamaican. My husband's mom is a black Canadian. </p>

<p>Even though my husband grew up in the ghetto of a major city, he still didn't have some of the baggage that American-born blacks have because his mother had not been raised in the kind of racism that existed in the US. </p>

<p>For decades, I had noticed that a disproportionately high number of blacks who do well educationally and professionally in this country are children of immigrant Caribbeans (I think that because of immigrantion laws and other things, there wasn't a large flow of African immigrants until about 20 years ago). </p>

<p>If one takes a close look at the blacks who are highly successful educationally and professionally, one also will find disproportionately large numbers of bi-racial individuals and of blacks who were adopted by white families, which is a tiny category of black people.</p>

<p>The other category that I have noticed is blacks whose parents were career military. I am convinced that such blacks appear to do relatively well because of the excellence of secondary and elementary schools on military bases (which research has indicated are extremely successful in graduating black students with high scores). </p>

<p>I also think that it helps that through exposure to the military's system of professional advancement the students constantly see a connection between education, skills and professional advancement. While the military isn't perfect, it doesn't have as much of the good ole (white) boy system of advancement and racism that the world outside of the military has.</p>

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<p>Northstarmom, while I defintely agree with you that blacks have in the US have been disadvantaged, I wouldn't exclude other Africans from also experiencing the effects of racism. Western imperialism, the slave trade (which was the largest forced migration in human history), and the general economic exploitation of Africa affected all Africans. AA may have initially been intended to mitigate against the historical inequalities African Americans have faced, I don't see it has entirely unreasonably that other Africans might benefit.</p>

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<p>I agree with you that Western imperialism affected all of Africa. </p>

<p>I don't think, however, that that exploitation means that Africans should benefit from affirmative action that was designed to address the inequities due to the slave trade and racial discrimination in this country.</p>

<p>I do think that countries that participated in the slave trade and that plundered Africa should be involved in doing major things to assist Africa, which is the poorest continent in the world due to western imperialism. I think that those efforts would have the best benefit by focusing on Africa itself and the people who are in Africa, not the people who have emigrated.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, African immigrants in the US are some of the most well educated immigrants. Indeed, about 10 years ago, they were the immigrant group with the highest proportion of doctorates. As far as I know, that may still be the case.</p>

<p>I don't think that they need any additional tip of affirmative action. They really are doing fine. They tend to have high scores, high grades, and a wonderful support group of other highly educated African immigrants.</p>

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<p>Northstarmom, with all due respect, I fail to see your logic. You say that African immigrants don't need any additional tip of affirmative action and are doing fine. Unless you have interviewed every African immigrant in this country, how do you know that? Sure, in college I too knew some very educated Africans, but I would never generalize and say that all Africans in this country are doing fine. I'm sure there are many such immigrants who are struggling to make ends meet. I really don't see what the point is of pitting one black group against another. The fact is, there is underrepresentation of blacks at most pretigious colleges, and all subsets of blacks can benefit from colleges focusing on improving their numbers.</p>

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<p>""FWIW, I still do not understand why some consider it important to attempt to create additional sub-groups among black students, or even worse attempting to create a hierarchy or pecking order. "</p>

<p>Because Affirmative Action initially was designed to assist people who had been hurt by the discrimination practiced in this country. That discrimination still is hurting people who are black, US born and not children of immigrants.</p>

<p>NSM, since discrimination still exist, I do not see how it would help the "cause" by dividing the groups, or showing that the URM status does not aplly to a certain sub-group. Do we have many schools in the US that could plant a sign in the front lawn that says, "Too many qualified blacks - Do not apply"? </p>

<p>However, what is more important is to identify how you would amend the current education AA practices. If you were in charge, would you realign the qualifications? Would you separate the immigrants and offspring of immigrants based on country of origin? Would you do the same for Hispanics? </p>

<p>FWIW, we do NOT do this for Asians, and here we have a broad category that SHOULD be separated among various sub-groups. Because of their success, Asians have "graduated" from needing a special status for college admissions. However, no difference is made between a waelthy fourth generation American-Chinese from a tony San Francisco neighborhood and a recent immigrant from Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos who lives in the poorest area of LA. </p>

<p>By now, we all know, that the AA would be IMPROVED by adding socio-economic provisions or qualifications. In essence, this may yield to the elimination of a certain sub-groups, be it the elimination of the kids of wealthy African tycoons or other media and athletic stars. </p>

<p>However, we should really ask ourselves if the elimination of any subgroups is warranted at this time. Again, the AA program is as needed at it was when it was started. The progress for most URM is slow to come and needs to be pursued. What is also needed is a greater number of role models for our younger generation. And in my book, it does not matter if this role model happens to be born in Ghana, Jamaica, or in Detroit's inner city.</p>

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<p>I am not saying that every African immigrant is doing fine. I am saying that as a group, they are probably the most highly educated immigrant group in this country and therefore do not need the benefit of affirmative action to get opportunities. They are disproportionately being accepted to elite colleges, scoring high on the SATs and going to medical and other professional schools. This is true even of those struggling to make ends meet. </p>

<p>Also, some of those who are struggling making ends meet in jobs like being cab drivers actually are professional educated but have to work blue collar jobs because they aren't able to get licensed in their professions in this country. </p>

<p>They may not be able to give their kids much money, but they are able to oversee their kids education and provide a home environment that allows their kids to flourish more intellectually than, for instance, African American kids whose parents may be high school drop-outs or functionally illiterate graduates of substandards high schools.</p>

<p>African immigrants and their offspring are doing a fine job of getting to college and professional schools, and I see no evidence that they need any kind of additional boost any more than more work needs to be done to boost the numbers of well heeled whites or representatives of most Asian cultures who are in elite colleges and professional schools.</p>

<p>The group that does need the tip and that does need to be recruited are US born black Americans who aren't biracial and don't have immigrant parents.</p>

<p>Those are African Americans who are underrepresented in college and in professional schools. Those also are the largest proportion of black Americans. And in this group of African Americans, the group most disadvantaged are the low income ones who also are likely to have had weak secondary and elementary schools and to have lacked enrichment opportunities and parents with a sophisticated knowledge of education.</p>

<p>Due to their weak public school educations, many highly capable native born African Americans do not have the scores to get into elite colleges even though they may be bright enough to be able to handle the academics there. They also are not as likely as are the offspring of immigrant Africans to get from home the intellectual tools that would help them do well on the tests and supplement their curriculum so as to boost their scores and help them get into top colleges.</p>

<p>If one's parent is educated as an engineer, a physician or holds a doctorate (as is the case of many offspring of African immigrants), one is going to get things at home ranging from language skills (many of the African immigrants are Nigerian, and speak excellent English) to knowing about enrichment activities -- that will help one be on track for elite colleges and professional schools. </p>

<p>"According to the United States Bureau of Census, migrants born in Africa have the highest level of educational attainment in the United States when compared to other migrant groups like Asians, Europeans and Latin Americans. </p>

<p>Census figures for 2000 show that 49.3 percent of African migrants in the! 25 years and over age bracket have a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to Europeans, 32.9 percent, Asians, 44.9 percent and Central Americans, 5.5 percent and South Americans 25 percent (Bureau of Census, 2000). </p>

<p>This represents an increase from 1997 when 48.9 percent of African migrants in the 25 years and over age bracket have a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to Europeans, 28.7 percent, Asians, 44.6 percent and Latin Americans, 5.6 percent (Bureau of Census, 1997). ...</p>

<p>" The fact that 49 percent of African immigrants have college degrees while only 14 percent of African Americans graduate from college adds a class dimension to the problem. The Bureau of Census reports, for instance, that the median household income of African immigrants is $30,907 compared to $19,533 for Black Americans (Bureau of Census, 1997)...."
<a href="http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/468.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/468.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Northstarmom, the only disagreement I have with your perspective is that you generalized a bit about the historic perception of education in the Black experience. One needs to keenly and distinctly look at the experience of southern Blacks in America. Yes, overall the message that American society pressed upon the its Black citizens was that they shouldn't bother with anything beyond a rudimentary education. But just as many 19th century slaves secretly passed along the skill of reading and writing whenever they found the chance to do it, contemporary southern blacks, say post-1920, who chose to stay in the south kept reinforcing the goal of education. Northern indifference about conditions in northern ghettoes restricted student achievement, but it is quite amazing how the the folks struggling in the segregated south kept their eye on enhancing educational opportunities for their children, despite "massive resistance." I think we downplay the educational achievement of Black pupils of immediate southern heritage because so many families left for the north. But many stayed, got their children educated once legal Jim Crow was eliminated, and achieved much success. Not every successful Black resident of Houston, Dallas, Birmingham, Memphis, Nashville and Atlanta are from north of Mason's and Dixon's Line or are the children of Black immigrants.</p>

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<p>NSM, if all of that were true, I still do not get how it would benefit anyone to highlight the differences. I said "were" true, because the evidence is flimsy at best. For instance, I consider most of the JBHE to be questionable on historical basis. They are know to take quick snapshots and build up cases without separating facts and fiction. But, again, that is not even the issue!</p>

<p>Why we should try to reduce the number of succesful black students in higher education puzzles me!</p>

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<p>"I think we downplay the educational achievement of Black pupils of immediate southern heritage because so many families left for the north. But many stayed, got their children educated once legal Jim Crow was eliminated, and achieved much success. Not every successful Black resident of Houston, Dallas, Birmingham, Memphis, Nashville and Atlanta are from north of Mason's and Dixon's Line or are the children of Black immigrants.":</p>

<p>Of course that's true. At the same time, the southern blacks still were handicapped because the parents/grandparents had horrendous educations under the Jim Crow system which had them learning from secondhand text books (that incidentally sometimes seemed to deliberately contain wrong information) and having a much shorter school year than did white students.</p>

<p>Unless they chose to leave the South in order to get higher education, they were relegated to historically black colleges, which lacked resources because the public universities were disproportionately underfunded and the private universities were struggling because the lacked a support base of well off alum, and also had a hard time getting grants.</p>

<p>The impact of these inequities still is being experienced by African American families in the South. </p>

<p>The point of highlighting the differences is to make sure that educational programs including college recruitment ones and enrichment programs designed for disadvantaged blacks are including the black students that are most in need of recruitment, enrichment and admissions boosts due to being disadvantaged because of the legacy of racism. IMO it's fine to accept and provide opportunities to immigrant Africans and their offspring on their merits. </p>

<p>Meanwhile, I have been very impressed by the information and research in the Journal of Blacks and Higher Education, which I have found to be the best source of information about blacks and education. Indeed, it tends to be the only publication where one easily can find detailed information that includes information about blacks and performance on the SAT, APs, black students' performance in certain college majors, the numbers of blacks getting doctorates in the hard sciences, etc.</p>

<p>Everything that I have seen in the Journal is that its small staff must devote a lot of time analyzing and obtaining statistics that are very hard to get. The editor and publisher, Theodore Cross, is white, and I have always wondered what inspired him to devote his life to doing this hard, and often unappreciated work.</p>

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<p>I agree with NSM and I wish I could explain my reasoning as well. How AAs view education is contingent on our upbringing and that of our parents. My SIL was born in Chicago but her parents were Jamaican immigrants. Her views on education and life in general are different from most AAs I know. She complains that we limit our expectations, always assuming something or someone is going to prevent us from succeeding.</p>

<p>At my SIL’s dad’s funeral I heard how he came to America in his twenties with only a couple of dollars, lived with another Jamaican family, worked hard, started his own business, and became wealthy. I remember thinking about my dad in his twenties – joined the army and was sent to the Pacific Theatre. While there he became a sergeant. He and his men (all black) were placed in the front while the white soldiers followed. Of course this maneuver didn’t fool the Japanese who waited until after the black soldiers had passed before they started shooting. The US Army was then forced to integrate the fighting units. After he returned from the war, soldiers were offered jobs with the USPS – but in Chicago, neighborhood postal jobs (even in black neighborhoods) were reserved for the returning white soldiers. The black soldiers had to take jobs at the downtown station, requiring hours on public transportation to get to and from work. My reason for telling these two stories is an attempt to explain why my SIL and I view America and it’s opportunities for our children differently.</p>