Language, Race, and Negotiation of Identity: A Study of Dominican Americans (New Americans

by Benjamin H. Bailey

Using ethnography and discourse analysis of peer interaction, Bailey shows how Dominican Americans negotiate and transform racial structure at a Rhode Island high school. The Dominican American students think of themselves as "Spanish" or "Hispanic," identities that are at odds with the racial terms, "Black" or "African American," in which they are seen by others. This linguistic construction of ethnic/racial identities resists Black/White racialization and undermines dominant categories of race and ethnicity. This local transformation of ethnic/racial categories by Dominican Americans suggest the wider effects of post-1965 immigration on United States ethnic/racial categories.

304 pages, Library Binding

First published April 22, 2002