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Sociology

University of Richmond

Series

2008

Hybrid identity

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Hybrid Identities In The Diaspora: Second Generation West Indians In Brooklyn, Bedelia N. Richards Jan 2008

Hybrid Identities In The Diaspora: Second Generation West Indians In Brooklyn, Bedelia N. Richards

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

How does ethnic identity manifest among contemporary second-generation West Indian youth? In this essay I argue that the ethnic identities of post-1990s second-generation West Indian youth in Brooklyn are best characterized as “hybrid identities.” Diaspora communities like the one created by West Indian immigrants in Brooklyn provide ideal conditions for the development of hybrid identities, the fusion of two or more cultures coexisting in a single individual (Smith and Leavy, 2008). In addition to the question already posed, this paper will explicate how second-generation West Indian youth experience, make sense of and express the inherent complexity of identities that emerge …


Bridging The Theoretical Gap: The Diasporized Hybrid In Sociological Theory, Melissa F. Weiner, Bedelia N. Richards Jan 2008

Bridging The Theoretical Gap: The Diasporized Hybrid In Sociological Theory, Melissa F. Weiner, Bedelia N. Richards

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In a nation of immigrants, most American ethnic groups have at some point wrestled with how to reconcile having an identity that is rooted simultaneously in their countries of origin and in the United States, particularly when they are also racialized ethnic minorities. This hybrid identity often blends divergent cultures and traditions. And sociologists, intent on explaining these tensions, have focused on the experiences that have shaped these identities for over a century. As a result, the theoretical roots of contemporary hybridity theories such as the segmented assimilation perspective, can be traced back to “classical” theorists of race, pluralism, and …