Mapping Second Generation Cape Verdean Youth Identity in the Greater Boston Area

“WE EAT CACHUPA, NOT CLAM CHOWDER:” MAPPING SECOND GENERATION CAPE VERDEAN YOUTH IDENTITY IN THE GREATER BOSTON AREA A dissertation presented by Paul Khalil Saucier Submitted to The Department of Sociology and Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of Sociology Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts September, 2008 1 “WE EAT CACHUPA, NOT CLAM CHOWDER:” MAPPING SECOND GENERATION CAPE VERDEAN YOUTH IDENTITY IN THE GREATER BOSTON AREA by Paul Khalil Saucier ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology in the Graduate School Arts and Sciences of Northeastern University, September 2008 2 ABSTRACT On the basis of fieldwork conducted in the Greater Boston area from May 2007 to May 2008, this dissertation explores the ways in which second-generation Cape Verdean youth in the Greater Boston area negotiate their identity as Cape Verdean and, by extension, as black through multiple articulations of diaspora. Using the ethnographic method this dissertation attempts to understand processes of racialization of “blackness.” My objective is to examine how racialization works to create black identities and to challenge the assumptions that black people do not actively participate in the discourses and practices of racial identity formation. I argue that Cape Verdean youth identities are constructed out of a process of negotiation and contestation, but the negotiation and contestation is stunted by the racial logic of the U.S.; a logic that configures blacks one- dimensionally. In doing so, I examine how North American ascriptions of blackness and forms of black popular culture inform processes of identity formation and negotiation among Cape Verdean youth. I investigate the expressive forms of Cape Verdean youth culture, paying particular attention to hip-hop culture to see how it is used as a site where new (or old) identities of being Cape Verdean are fashioned and reworked within the contemporary socio-cultural context of race in the early 21 st century. I map the interplay between structuring experience and individual choice by wider historical and social factors. In short, this dissertation is focused on the mysterious workings of race and how Cape Verdean youth think and feel their identities into palpable everyday existence, while keeping in mind the dynamics and politics of racialization. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor and chair of the dissertation committee, Professor Mike Brown for his amazing insight, support, generosity, and encouragement. It is difficult to imagine what would have come of this project were it not for his intellectual brilliance and sophistication. A very special thanks goes to Professor Wini Breines for always asking more of me. Your insight and constructive criticism over the years has made me a better scholar. I am also grateful to Professor Matt Hunt who helped shape my analysis on race and racial identity. Abundant thanks to both Professor Kumirini Silva and Professor Murray Forman for their generosity, friendship, critical dialogue, and commitment over the years in which this project developed. Thank you also to the insightful scholars who have written and who will write on race, racial identity, and black popular culture. I would also like to thank all the Cape Verdean youth throughout the Great Boston area that took the time to sit with me and answer my questions. Although not everyone made it into the manuscript, all your comments, suggestions, and incites on race, identity, and popular culture in the United States left an indelible mark in the following pages. Muito obrigado! And to the most beautiful person I have ever met in my life, my wife and partner, Jasmine. Thank you for your intense love and example. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….……...2 Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………….……...4 Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………….5 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………..6 CHAPTER TWO: “LIGHT SKIN AFRICAN BLOOD:” CAPE VERDEAN HISTORY AND RACIAL POLITICS………………………………………………………………23 CHAPTER THREE: MAPPING RACE AND RACIAL IDENTITY: LITERATURE REVIEW and THEORY ………………………………………………………………...41 CHAPTER FOUR: IN THE FIELD: PARTICIPATING, OBSERVING, AND WRITING AN ETHNOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………..75 CHAPTER FIVE: BECOMING BLACK? NARRATIVES OF RACE AMONG CAPE VERDEAN YOUTH…………………………………………………………………….95 CHAPTER SIX: HIP-HOP MUSIC: NARRATIVES OF CAPE VERDEANS IN AMERICA (Red, Black, and Green Remix)…………………………………………...123 CHAPTER SEVEN: CAPE VERDEAN YOUTH FASHION: IDENTITY IN CLOTHING………………………………………………………………………….....149 CHAPTER EIGHT: CVSPACE: MUSINGS ON IDENTITY, TECHNOLOGY, AND MYSPACE……………………………………………………………………………..172 CHAPTER NINE: BY WAY OF CONCLUSION…………………………………….184 Appendix A…………………………………………………………………………….194 Appendix B……………………………………………………………………………..195 Appendix C ……………………………………………………………………….……196 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………... 197 5 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION The time approaches 10:00pm and all of the black-leather booths are filled with people sipping alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, talking on cell phones, looking over notebooks, laughing, and texting friends. The crowd also thickens on the small dance floor at Xxodus Café at the Providence Black Repertory Company (Black Rep), a place that produces and presents artistic performances inspired by the cultural traditions of the African Diaspora. The décor is dark and Afrocentric. The walls feature African masks and carved wooden elephants; animal prints are carefully placed to create a chic environment. Some people are dancing in a cipher; arms are flailing, feet are kicking, and robotic motions are mimicked. Others stand with arms crossed and heads nodding. The bassline is thick and heavy and the constant thump pounds out over the sound system, reverberating amidst the dancing and motionless bodies. Alternating between the energy infused hip-hop performances are melodic and sublime readings of poetry. Six days a week the scene is similar, for the Black Rep presents live music, poetry, and other live performances, contributing to the cultural literacy of the Providence community. As a result, the Black Rep is one of the more popular nightly destinations in the area. Every Monday night local hip-hop artist “Chachi” Carvalho, a Cape Verdean American, hosts an open microphone, spoken word, and poetry series called “Polyphonic.” Tonight, most of the people in attendance are Cape Verdean Americans, but there are a few African Americans and white people enjoying the music played by DJ Theron, 6 a Cape Verdean American. This edition of “Polyphonic” is dedicated to Cape Verdean hip-hop artists. On a typical night the “Polyphonic” crowd is noticeably more diverse, that is, racially mixed, but tonight Cape Verdean youth are the majority. On this night, there are appearances by local Cape Verdean hip-hop artists from the Greater Boston area: DJ Lefty, Tem Blessed, Gremlin, and D.Lopes. Unlike other nights, traditional and contemporary forms of Cape Verdean music are mixed somewhat seamlessly with old school and new school hip-hop music. Wearing baggy jeans, a camouflage baseball cap, and a white t-shirt with the old flag of the Republic of Cape Verde imprinted on the front, “Chachi” jumps on stage and begins to kick a freestyle 1 using English, but suddenly, and to the amazement and thrill of the crowd, switches to Crioulo, the national language of the Republic of Cape Verde. Similarly dressed, Tem Blessed, whose performance was no less energetic, follows “Chachi”. From this, it became abundantly clear that a hip-hop party with a Cape Verdean feeling had clearly begun. But something else was lurking, which was obviously apparent, the specter of race. Second-Generation Cape Verdean Youth in the Greater Boston Area In the last four decades the United States has experienced large-scale immigration from Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Africans, especially from sub-Saharan Africa, that have settled in the United States in the last 40 years represent the largest number of Africans in more than 300 years to settle in North America. Today, there are over one million African immigrants in the U.S. The cultural polyphony of Africans has become a noticeable aspect of the urban landscape of major metropolitan centers across the United 1 Freestyle rap is an improvisational form of rapping, performed with little or no previously composed lyrics. 7 States and is transforming the character of race relations and racial and ethnic categories. As the number of African immigrants has expanded, their children have gradually entered mainstream institutions like secondary and post-secondary schools, community centers, the workplace, and as a result have increasingly become more visible. Despite, cultural and ethnic differences, African immigrants and their children often find themselves confronted by a racial system in the U.S. that configures them one-dimensionally as black (Waters 1999). Cape Verdean immigrants are no exception, for the Cape Verdean diaspora in the Greater Boston area has consistently grown since the 1960s. As Halter (1993) and Sanchez Gibau (1999 and 2005) have argued, the Cape Verdean diaspora has actively contested the boundaries of racial categories in the United States by creating a space for cultural differentiation. However, these studies do not account for the multiple and diverse ways in which Cape Verdeans challenge

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