Black Identity Theory

Borders, communities, and identities were the focal points of the last unit in Historical Theories and Methods. These three ideas can sometimes fuse with each other creating a complex discussion of what they mean. One topic that interests me that relates with these ideas is a study of the origins of the following words, Hispanic, Latina/o, and Chicana/o. These words mean a lot to a complex community that exists along the United States and Mexican border. These words usually can lead to an identity predicament amongst people in these communities. The three theories and methods I believe that can be useful when approaching this topic are subaltern studies, race or identity theory, and oral histories. These three theories and methodology
David Brunsma and Kerry Rockquemore wrote an article titled, “What Does Black Mean?” The article analyzed the meaning of what it meant to be black in the United States historically as well as its meaning today. The authors used the 2000 census that was completed in the United States that had a check all that apply moniker for race. There were sixty-three different options to use from. The authors go on to examine the historic meaning of being black. They use the example of the one-drop rule to show how different the meaning of black has come to be. The authors also discussed a study they conducted amongst half black and half white college students. The majority of the students identified as bi-racial, while sixteen percent identified as solely black or white. In all the authors had five different types of racial identity groupings. The authors are making the argument that identifying, as black no longer means the same thing that it used to. The conclusion made by the authors is that meaning of black will continue to evolve and shift from the singular identification of
Trying to figure out why people use Hispanic over Chicana/o or vice versa will be part of the oral history process. The importance of oral histories cannot be overstated. Many times the history and story of the people being interviewed or studied would be lost or forgotten without them. Oral histories are valuable resources that could help validate and bolster the research paper. In my case I would start off by interviewing family members, because I know them best. Then, I would branch out to close friends. After completing those two sets of oral histories I would ask the interviewees if they knew someone that would be interested in answering my questions. I would try to get to know my interviewees as Wilkinson and Carey did in their