Report: Majority of Black Americans say race shapes identity

Apr 15, 2022, 1:43 PM | Updated: 3:01 pm

A majority of Black Americans say being Black is central to how they think about themselves and shape their identities, even as many have diverse experiences and come from various backgrounds, according to a new report by Pew Research Center. About three-quarters of Black people said so despite where they come from, their economic status or educational backgrounds.

Overall, 14% say being Black is only somewhat important to their identity and 9% say it has little to no impact, highlighting the diversity of thought among Black Americans, which include U.S.-born Black people and Black immigrants, and different ethnicities, political party affiliations and ages.

Pew Research Center released its report on Black identity on Thursday, and the results pinpoint the critical role race plays in shaping identity in the U.S.

“What our data suggests to me is that being Black is important to all Black people, according to our findings, regardless of the intersections of their identity,” said Kiana Cox, research associate and co-author of the report. A “majority of Black people, 76%, said that being Black was really important to them.”

Cox, who has worked with Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., for about four years, said they wanted to make sure they had a large enough sample to “get this kind of nuance within racial and ethnic groups, but also to understand sort of life and society as Black people understand it.”

Shelly Eversley, a professor at The City University of New York, said the 76% of survey respondents who consider their Blackness important to their identity was still less than she would expect it to be because “race informs every asset of Black life.”

“Understanding the way race informs daily life is protection for a lot of Black people,” said Eversley, who has taught about race for 20 years and is interim chair for the Department of Black and Latinx Studies. She was not a participant in the report.

She said being Black is something you are aware of at a young age. Black children are often disciplined harder at school and other places, and their parents tend to have conversations with them about the dangers of racism when they are still young, she added.

The report also points to how the importance that people place on being Black fosters a sense of connectedness among communities, Cox said.

People who say that being Black is an important part of their personal identity were more likely to express a sense of connection with Black people in their local communities, in the U.S. and around the world than those who said Blackness is relatively less important.

There are 47 million Black people in the U.S., about 14% of the population, according to the 2020 census. Most Black adults in the U.S. where born in the country, but an increasing portion of the population is comprised of immigrants, about 12%. Of the Black immigrant population, 90% were born in the Caribbean or Africa.

Cox also said she was shocked to learn that place — or where people grew up and were living — played a large role in identity and how people shaped their values and what they viewed as important issues.

Black Americans cited violence and crime, along with economic issues such as poverty and homelessness as the most important issues to address in their communities, according to the report. The most important local issues named across subgroups of Black Americans does vary but often violence and crime, economic issues and housing issues rank among the top three.

Overall, 17% of Black Americans said the most important issue is violence or crime — a category that includes drug activity, theft and vandalism, among other offenses. Eleven percent cited economic issues as the most important, 7% cited housing and 6% cited COVID-19 and public health. Nearly half of Black adults said local leaders are most responsible for addressing these important issues.

A separate poll conducted in March by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research revealed an overwhelming majority of adults say more progress is needed in achieving equal treatment for Black people in dealings with police and the criminal justice system. That’s two years after protests against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a racial reckoning across the country.

When asking about community issues, the survey used an open-ended question, so “the answer of what Black Americans think is important is a little more multilayered than just violence or crime,” Cox said, noting that there is so much more that goes into that category than police violence.

The report also showed that about half of Black people who say being Black is crucial to personal identity feel very or extremely informed about the history of Black people in the U.S. Of that group, about half say they learned that history from family and friends. A large majority, regardless of how Blackness shapes their personal identities, say they have spoken to their families about their own history.

“The clarity in which family as a source of history for both U.S. Black history, like the kind of history we expect to learn in school, and ancestral history, what we learn about our family histories, was very interesting. It came through so strongly,” Cox said. “What that is telling us, is it confirms what scholars and historians have told us about the strength of family for Black Americans, especially in terms of greater knowledge.”

___

The survey of 6,513 U.S. adults, including 3,912 Black Americans, was conducted Oct. 4-17, 2021. It uses a sample drawn from Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel and Ipsos KnowledgePanel, which are designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for Black respondents is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

___

Mumphrey, who reported from Phoenix, is a member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at: https://www.twitter.com/cheymumph.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP

Expert skateboarder Di'Orr Greenwood, an artist born and raised in the Navajo Nation in Arizona and...
Associated Press

Indigenous skateboard art featured on new stamps unveiled at Phoenix skate park

The Postal Service unveiled the “Art of the Skateboard" stamps at a Phoenix skate park, featuring designs from Indigenous artists.
18 hours ago
(Facebook Photo/City of San Luis, Arizona)...
Associated Press

San Luis authorities receive complaints about 911 calls going across border

Authorities in San Luis say they are receiving more complaints about 911 calls mistakenly going across the border.
7 days ago
(Pexels Photo)...
Associated Press

Daylight saving time begins in most of US this weekend

No time change is observed in Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.
15 days ago
Mexican army soldiers prepare a search mission for four U.S. citizens kidnapped by gunmen in Matamo...
Associated Press

How the 4 abducted Americans in Mexico were located

The anonymous tip that led Mexican authorities to a remote shack where four abducted Americans were held described armed men and blindfolds.
15 days ago
Tom Brundy points to a newly built irrigation canal on one of the fields at his farm Tuesday, Feb. ...
Associated Press

Southwest farmers reluctant to idle farmland to save water

There is a growing sense that fallowing will have to be part of the solution to the increasingly desperate drought in the West.
22 days ago
A young bison calf stands in a pond with its herd at Bull Hollow, Okla., on Sept. 27, 2022. The cal...
Associated Press

US aims to restore bison herds to Native American lands after near extinction

U.S. officials will work to restore more large bison herds to Native American lands under a Friday order from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
22 days ago

Sponsored Articles

(Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona Photo)...
Desert Institute for Spine Care in Arizona

5 common causes for chronic neck pain

Neck pain can debilitate one’s daily routine, yet 80% of people experience it in their lives and 20%-50% deal with it annually.
(Photo by Michael Matthey/picture alliance via Getty Images)...
Cox Communications

Valley Boys & Girls Club uses esports to help kids make healthy choices

KTAR’s Community Spotlight focuses on the Boys & Girls Club of the Valley and the work to incorporate esports into children's lives.
(Desert Institute for Spine Care photo)...
DESERT INSTITUTE FOR SPINE CARE

Why DISC is world renowned for back and neck pain treatments

Fifty percent of Americans and 90% of people at least 50 years old have some level of degenerative disc disease.
Report: Majority of Black Americans say race shapes identity