Keywords:
Black African immigrants, Black African epistemology, epistemologies of the South,, Standpoint epistemology, critical Race theory, constructivism/interpretivism, marginalized groupAbstract
This article describes the theoretical construction of a Black African Immigrant Standpoint Epistemology (BAISE). BAISE is an emerging system of thought that seeks and locates the souls of Black African immigrants, re-centers their conceptions of knowledge, and describes their theory of action. Such an epistemology is critical as a tool for Black African immigrants to more effectively express their theoretical agency and construct an alternative form of knowledge that accounts for the totality of their experiences and their social realities. The article first describes the key tenets of several conceptual frameworks that have been appropriated and reconfigured to provide the conceptual foundations of BAISE. These core components are interwoven together to capture the complexity of the experiences and the realities of Black African immigrants and create a tapestry of concepts and knowledges providing the epistemological context for BAISE. Among the many coeval and complementary theories of knowledge available, theories that focus on agency and the construction of realities, on the valorization of previously discredited and discounted epistemological alternatives, as well as on the deconstruction of the positionality of Black African immigrants on the racialized checkerboard and on the re-centering of the marginalized and oppressed lives have seeded the emergence of BAISE. The second major section of this article presents the initial theoretical development of BAISE. The conceptualization process describes how the marginalized status of Black African immigrants shapes their identities and perspectives on the world.
Downloads
References
Delgado, R. (1989) "Storytelling for oppositionists and others: A plea for narrative", Michigan Law Review, 87, 8, pp. 2411-2441. https://doi.org/10.2307/1289308
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2001) Critical race theory: An Introduction, New York, New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.51089
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1903) The souls of Black folks. http://sites.middlebury.edu/soan105tiger/files/2014/08/Du-Bois-The-Souls-of-Black-Folks.pdf (Accessed: April 2019). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315631998
Fuss, D. (1989) Essentially speaking: Feminism, nature, and difference, London, Routledge.
Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1989) Fourth generation evaluation, Newbury Park, CA, SAGE Publications.
Harding, S. (1993) Rethinking standpoint epistemology: What Is "strong objectivity?", in L. Alcoff. & E. Potter (eds.), Feminist epistemologies, New York, Routledge, pp. 49-82.
Harding, S. (2004) "Introduction: standpoint theory as a site of political, philosophic, and scientific debate", in S. Harding (ed.), The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies, New York and London, Routledge, pp. 1-15.
Hart, M. A. (2010) "Indigenous worldviews, knowledge, and research: The development of an Indigenous research paradigm", Journal of Indigenous Voices in Social Work, 1, 1 https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/15117/v1i1_04hart.pdf (Accessed: January 2019).
Harushimana, I., Ikpeze, C., & Mthethwa-Sommers, S. (2013) "Telling it like it is: Legitimizing the brains under the colonial masks", in I. Harushimana, C. Ikpeze, & S. Mthethwa-Sommers (eds.), Reprocessing race, language, and ability: African-born educators and students in transnational America, New York, Peter Lang, pp. 1-9.
Hirsh, E., Olson, G., & Harding, S. (1995) "Starting from marginalized lives: A conversation with Sandra Harding", JAC, 15, 2, pp.193-225. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20866024 (Accessed: March 2019).
Intemann, K. (2010) "25 Years of feminist empiricism and standpoint theory: Where are we now?", Hypatia, 25, 4, pp. 778-796. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2010.01138.x
Jaggar, A. M. (1983) "Feminist politics and epistemology: The standpoint of women", in S. Harding (ed.), The feminist standpoint theory reader: Intellectual & political controversies, New York and London, Routledge, pp. 55-66.
Ladson-Billings, G. (2013) Critical Race Theory -What it is not! Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education, London, Routledge.
Ladson-Billings, G., & Tate IV, W. F. (1995) "Toward a critical race theory of education", Teachers College Records, 97, 1, page 47-68.
Lippi-Green, R. (1994) "Accent, standard language ideology, and discriminatory pretext in the courts", Language in Society, 23, 2, pp. 163-198. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500017826
Lopez, G. R. (2001) "Re-visiting white racism in educational research: Critical race theory and the problem of method", Educational Researcher, pp. 29-33. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X030001029
McIsaac, E. (2000) "Oral narratives as a site of resistance: Indigenous knowledge, colonialism, and western discourse", in G. J. Dei, B. L. Hall & D. G. Rosenberg (eds.), Indigenous Knowledges in Global Contexts, Toronto, Canada, University of Toronto Press, pp. 89-101.
Moreton-Robinson, A. (2013) "Towards an Australian indigenous women's standpoint theory", Australian Feminist Studies, 28, 78, pp. 331- 347 (Accessed: September 2019). https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2013.876664
Moikobu, J. M. (1981) Blood and flesh: Black American and African identification, Wesport, CN, Greenwood Press.
Mupotsa, D. S. (2007) "African feminist standpoint", Postamble, 3,1, pp. xi-xxiii. Nakata, M. (2007) The cultural interface. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36, pages 7-14. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1326011100004646
Narayan, Uma (1989) "The project of a feminist epistemology: Perspective from a nonwestern feminist", in S. Harding (ed.), The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual & Political Controversies, New York and London, Routledge, pp. 213-224.
Okonofua, B. A. (2013) "I am Blacker than you": Theorizing conflict between African immigrants and African Americans in the United States" http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/3/3/2158244013499162.full-text.pdf+html (Accessed: May 2019). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244013499162
Omara, A. (2017) "Triple consciousness: To be black and an immigrant in America", Salon (September 17) https://www.salon.com/2017/09/17/triple-consciousness-to-be-black-and-an-immigrant-in-america (Accessed on March 2019).
Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994) Racial formations in the United States, London, Routledge. Page, C. (2007) "Black immigrants: An invisible 'model minority", Real Clear Politics, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/03/black_immigrants_an_invisible.html (Accessed: May 2019).
Pierre, J. (2004) "Black immigrants in the United States and the "cultural narratives" of ethnicity", Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 11, pp. 141-170. https://doi.org/10.1080/10702890490451929
Pohlhaus, G. (2002) "Knowing communities. An investigation of Harding's standpoint epistemology", Social epistemology, 16, 3, pp. 283-293. https://doi.org/10.1080/0269172022000025633
Richwine, J. (2009) IQ and immigration policy, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, http://delong.typepad.com/pdf-1.pdf (Accessed: August 2018).
Santos, B. D. S. (2012) "Public sphere and epistemologies of the South", Africa Development, 37, 1, pp. 43-67. https://doi.org/10.1080/0035919X.2012.691433
Santos, B. D. S. (2016) "Epistemologies of the South and the future", From the European South: A Transdisciplinary Journal of Postcolonial Humanities, 1, pp. 17-29.
Santos, B. D. S., & Meneses, M. P. (eds., 2020), Knowledges Born in the Struggle: Constructing the Epistemologies of the Global South, New York, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429344596
Schwandt, T. A. (1994) Constructivist, interpretivist approaches to human inquiry. In N.K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (eds.), The landscape of qualitative research: Theories and issues, Thousand Oaks, CA, SAGE Publications, pp. 221-259.
Seppou, N. (2017) "An open letter to Black African immigrants", Huffington Post, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/nadege-seppou/open-letter-to-african-immigrants_b_8925614.html (Accessed: January 2018).
Sonn, C. C., & Lewis, R. C. (2009) "Immigration and identity: The Ongoing struggles for liberation", in M. Montero & C. C. Sonn (eds.), Psychology of liberation: Theory and applications, New York, Springer, pp. 115-133. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85784-8_6
Sprague, J. (2001) "Comment on Walby's "Against Epistemological Chasms: The Science Question in Feminism Revisited": Structured knowledge and strategic methodology", https://doi.org/10.1086/495603
Signs, 26, 2, pp. 527-536. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3175452 (Accessed: June 2018).
Takougang, J. (2006) Diaspora: African immigrants in USA. Contemporary African immigrants to the United States. www.aframglobal.org/articles/article/3077802/48646.htm (Accessed: December 2018).
Tchoumi, B. (2020) Why do you "talk" like that? The accented voices of Black African immigrants in school leadership, Doctoral Dissertation, Morgan State University.
Traore, R. L. (2003) "African American students in America: Reconstructing new meanings of "African American" in urban education", Intercultural Education, 14, 3, pp. 243-254. https://doi.org/10.1080/1467598032000117042
Ukpokodu, O. N. (2013) "The African-born in America break the silence on racism and linguicism", in I. Harushimana, C. Ikpeze, & S. Mthethwa-Sommers (eds.), Reprocessing race, language, and ability: African-born educators and students in transnational America, New York, Peter Lang, pp. xiii-xxii.
Warner, O. (2012) "Black in America too: Afro-Caribbean immigrants", Social and Economic Studies, 61, 4, pp. 69-103.
Willig, C. (2001) Introducing qualitative research in psychology: Adventures in theory and method, Philadelphia, Open University Press.
Willis, J. W. (2007) Foundations of qualitative research: Interpretive and critical approaches, London, SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452230108
Wilson, S. (2001) "What is Indigenous research methodology?", Canadian Journal of Native Education, 25, 1, pp. 175-179.
Wood, J. T. (2005) "Feminist standpoint theory and muted group theory: Commonalities and divergences", Women Language, 28, 2, pages 61-72.
Wylie, A. (2003) "Why standpoint matters", in R. Figueroa & S. Harding (eds.), Science and Other Cultures: Issues in Philosophies of Science and Technology, New York, Routledge, pp. 26-48.
Yosso, T. J. (2005) "Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth", Race, Ethnicity and Education, 8, 1, pp. 69-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006