Throughout history, humans have always sought to belong. Undoubtedly, this was the reasoning behind Aristotle’s famed aphorism—man is, by nature, a social animal.
However, not even the famed philosopher could have foreseen the twists and turns humanity would take. Through the advancement of technology, mass migration became a reality and, subsequently, culture clash went from a theoretical exercise to an unavoidable reality.
The dichotomy of diaspora in the United States.
While it can be argued that American culture itself is based on multiculturalism, several immigration waves across the centuries have complicated the issue. Thus, the diaspora’s human desire to belong faced a dichotomy.
After all, when a person is between two cultures, where does the human sense of belonging pulls towards? Is it possible to successfully belong to multiple cultures at the same time? Or does this diverse background limit the diaspora’s ability to merge with the culture they live in?
Social science and sociology are still debating this topic, but real life cannot wait for academia. The cultural clash that exists within the diaspora and immigrant communities within the United States has quite a high cost, and the most vulnerable ones are paying for it.
This is particularly true for the African diaspora within the country.
Assimilation, acculturation, and segregation.
When different cultures clash and interact with one another, three things can happen—complete absorption, partial transformation, or complete rejection.
The former, called assimilation, happens when a dominant culture completely takes over another one (Prine Pauls, 2019). Historically, this has been the motivation behind colonization, and it became the prevalent expectation towards immigration. However, it seldom works.
In the case of the African diaspora, assimilation was impossible due to the overlap of racial identity during the first half of the twentieth century. The so-called Great Migration created a division based on skin tone, therefore inducing a sense of otherness—segregation. (Fouka, Mazumder, and Tabellini, 2018).
Racial profiling and induced segregation naturally discourage assimilation, therefore reinforcing ethnic identity within the African diaspora. Subsequently, it pushes them towards their African identity instead of attempting to assimilate the American culture that encourages division. This, in turn, highlights “otherness” and reinforces the differences with one another.
Like an ouroboros, the conflict turns into a vicious cycle that highlights dissimilarities and discourages—or significantly slows down—acculturation, the balancing of both cultures.
The high cost of cultural differences.
While contextual circumstances have considerably changed since the first half of the twentieth century, the consequences of such a segregation are still prevalent.
Generally, in order to succeed in the United States, immigrants and diaspora must “become American”—that is, complete the assimilation process. This goal is fundamentally complicated for the African diaspora due to the racial identity prevalent within the country (The National Academy Press, 1996).
African diaspora’s lack of assimilation into American culture—and unequal standing within it—creates a significant difference in the quality of life across multiple areas. It creates poverty.
Nevertheless, poverty is not just a lack of income. In fact, poverty is a multidimensional monster with at least five heads—limited education, unemployment, low household income, lack of health insurance, and low-income residential area.
Most minorities, immigrants, and diaspora face disadvantage on at least one of these dimensions, while the majority of white Americans or assimilated diaspora—predominantly white—do not. (Reeves, Rodrigue, and Kneebone, 2016)
Regarding assimilation, its intrinsic social and qualitative nature makes it challenging to analyze. Despite this, socioeconomic statistics and overall success can offer an estimation of which groups have successfully assimilated the values of mainstream American culture.
A particular study determined that the most socioeconomically successful immigrant groups—therefore the most assimilated—are Chinese and Russian Jews, with percentages similar to those of White Americans.
Contrastingly, the most disadvantaged groups—and therefore most segregated—are Dominicans and Puerto Ricans. Despite this, native African-Americans displayed the highest rates of unemployment, incarceration and teen pregnancy, and showed the lowest percentage of professional occupation. (Waters, Tran, Kasinitz and Mollenkopf, 2010.)
To put it in perspective, native African Americans seem to be less assimilated than the most disadvantaged immigrant groups. It is almost impossible not to create a correlation between skin tone and assimilation.
Educational cost.
Like most things in life, the problem of inequality becomes evident from the early stages, mostly in the education field.
According to a particularly troubling study, non-black teachers display lower expectations towards black students than black teachers do (Gershenson, 2015). Teacher expectations play a critical role in student motivation, and therefore this gap can become a self-fulfilling prophecy by discouraging black students from further continuing studies.
Statistics reflect this reality. Black and Hispanic students are less likely to graduate from high school when compared to their white peers and display similar low college attendance rates. And while it may be tempting to believe socioeconomic differences cause this, a study by Equality of Opportunity proved the trend prevails when comparing black students with white students of similar income (Chetty, Hendren, Jones, Porter, 2018).
Multiple factors can explain this gap, but the most natural conclusion is that it reflects a lack of understanding between the dominant American culture, and the African-American one. In fact, the same research pointed out that kids of all races do better in school within neighborhoods that boast of lower poverty rates and high multiculturalism. Thus, establishing a direct link between success and acculturation.
However, multicultural schools with appropriate acculturated teachers seem like a faraway dream. A study determined that neighborhood diversity trends are slow to reverse, and affluent African-Americans tend to gravitate towards blacker neighborhoods, even if they are well below their income. (Malega, 2019).
Less diverse neighborhoods translate into a less diverse education. In particular, students are far more diverse than their teachers—African American educators tend to gravitate towards non-white schools. To be specific, 55% of black teachers work in schools with over 90% of non-white students. On the other hand, only 10% are in schools with a balanced percentage of 25-49% minority students, and barely 2% show up in schools with less than 10% non-white attendance. (Geiger, 2018)
Thus, black teachers prefer black schools. While this may be favorable for students that seek educators that understand them on a personal level, it is also undeniable evidence of the lack of assimilation in the community.
Employment, Professional, and Economic cost.
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics lists 2018’s unemployment rate at 3.8% on average. However, while White and Asian groups were below the average, the Hispanic and Black minorities were well above it—with African-Americans having the highest number, at 6%.
While it might be tempting to associate this unemployment level to inferior education or lack of opportunities, studies prove this is far from the case. African-Americans with advanced degrees still displayed an unemployment rate comparably higher than white counterparts with bachelor degrees (Wilson, 2018).
In a particular study, analysts sent multiple resumes with the same qualifications and without pictures, assigning them “white-sounding” and “black-sounding” names. Perhaps unsurprisingly, CVs with white-sounding names received 50% more callbacks, despite black applicants displaying identical credentials. (Bertrand, Mullainathan, 2002).
Despite this perplexing reality, naming conventions within African diaspora not only remain unchanged but grow stronger. Anglo-American names used to be common within the African American community, but the rise of the Black Power movement and the strengthening of African identity created a spike in distinctive black names.
To be specific, more than half of the African diaspora displayed names that are four times more likely to be given to fellow blacks. By comparison, Asian diaspora display naming choices that closely mirror that of Anglo Americans, with only 10% choosing names that are uncommon within the white population. (Fryer Jr. and Levitt, 2003)
The distinction between “black” and “white” names is cultural. Subsequently, the solid separation between both cultures has quite a high cost for the African diaspora, who often get punished for failing to assimilate.
Naturally, the situation proves to be worse for first-generation immigrants, who often struggle with language and cultural shock. Regardless, a different study proved that white African immigrant men were more likely to earn more than their equally-qualified black counterparts, therefore adding a racial layer to the cultural implications (Djamba and Kimuna, 2011).
The pay gap does not escape generational African diaspora, either. Black men earn $0.87 for each dollar earned by white men, and the gap grows more significant with women.
Health and wellbeing cost.
It is well-known the cost of separation for African diaspora when it comes to healthcare. American minorities receive lower-quality care and are less likely to receive preventive medical treatment, while African Americans display higher mortality rates from heart disease, breast cancer, and strokes when compared to their white peers. (Hostetter and Klein, 2018)
Even worse, these studies take into consideration other variables such as income, neighborhood, genetics, and health insurance. The only conclusion, then, is that racism, cultural division and lack of assimilation are to blame.
In that same research, African American patients described poor treatment as one of the main reasons they did not complete cancer treatment—81% compared to the 87% completion for white Americans. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the sample population that underwent customized support during their treatment went on to reach 91% of completion, surpassing the 89% of completion of white Americans.
It’s evident, then, that any potential disparity in healthcare between racial groups and communities within the United States is predominantly cultural. Subsequently, the gap disappears with the implementation of appropriate acculturation measures.
Social cost.
At the core of all the aforementioned problems, lies the social cost. The failure to assimilate or complete a successful acculturation process creates social inequity that, eventually, bleeds onto every other aspect of American life.
By 2015, homeownership by the African diaspora was barely over 40%—numbers eerily similar to those from 1968, and almost 30% behind their white peers. Prison and jail statistics are even grimmer since African Americans outnumber whites 6 to 1 (Jones, Schmitt, and Wilson, 2018)
Black-owned business statistics are similarly discouraging. Despite making up over 13% of America’s population, they own only 7% of the business, mostly as a consequence of segregation, negative prejudices, and lack of resources and funding in black neighborhoods (New Pittsburg Courier, 2019).
Similarly, political representation for the African diaspora remains low, yet there has been encouraging progress.
After Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States, the numbers have improved steadily, though there is still a large gap. As of 2019, Donald Trump’s cabinet is composed of 6% African Americans—not entirely representative of their numbers within the population. (Brown and Atske, 2019)
This remarkable gap between the African diaspora and other social groups within the United States reflects the profound division that still thrives within the country.
Despite its slow and steady improvement, segregation continues to take its toll on minorities—mainly when race plays a role in preventing complete assimilation.
It’s apparent, then, that only acculturation will provide this disadvantage population with the opportunities they need to enrichen the so-called melting pot of the United States.
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