“The goal of this research study was to understand the experience of students from the African Atlantic Diaspora (Africa, Caribbean, the Americas) whose primary way of identifying racially/ethnically is different than the racial classification of ‘Black’ that they are ascribed in a predominately white college setting.

Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie highlights the experience of race and class in the U.S. and the social implications of being classified as ‘Black’ in her book Americanah. In a recent radio interview about her award winning novel, Adichie stated, “in Nigeria, race is not a social reality. It is not an identity marker”, because most people are ‘black’. (Adichie, 2014). Like the main character in Adichie’s novel, the participants grappled with the differences between what it meant to be ‘Black’ here in the U.S. and in their home countries/communities.

The findings confirmed that the way in which the participants defined ‘Black’ was in conflict with the cultural definition of ‘Black’ in the U.S. The data yielded information that suggests the participants felt that ‘Black’ in the U.S. had a negative connotation and was synonymous with African-American – an ethnic group they did not identify with and held preconceived notions about.”