Abstract
Using second generation Americans Harry Belafonte, Paule Marshall, Audre Lorde, Piri Thomas, and the meringue hip hop group Proyecto Uno, Lisa D. McGill considers in Constructing Black Selves: Caribbean American Narratives and the Second Generation the issues of identity formation of those whose heritage ultimately includes Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States, most often New York City. Though her subjects come from different national, racial, and language backgrounds; though they have made their names in different media; and though they have different views of race, identity, and culture, she convincingly makes the argument that "African America becomes powerful site of assimilation for Caribbean second generationers and that the racialization of Caribbean immigrants in the United States plays a domination role in the acculturation process" (240).
Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
2007
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2007, Johns Hopkins University Press. This article first appeared in African American Review: 41:4 (2007), 812-814.
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Recommended Citation
Dance, Daryl Cumber. "Review of Constructing Black Selves: Caribbean American Narratives and the Second Generation by Lisa D. McGill." African American Review 41, no. 4 (2007): 812-14.
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