ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the impact of those racial structures upon the ancestral spaces of the native and immigrant black in America, examining how the most salient identities of African-Americans and African immigrants are distorted as a result of America's structural (racial) framing. It asserts the need to move in "a major new direction in thinking" and highlights an analysis of the relationship between native African-Americans and African immigrants, which takes the focus off cultural elements that distinguish and divide all groups of people from others and gives consideration to the divisive nature of the structural (racialized) framing of American society. The white racial framing of American society, then, promotes identity processes that are vastly different for African-Americans – more than for any other group in American society – compelling the development of an African-American identity construct that is put forth as oppositional to mainstream American values and identity.
