The experience of Blacks in Europe and the Americas

In this chapter I argue that there are four modes of ethno-somatic stratification in Europe and the Americas: the North American mode of binary mobilization, the Afro-Caribbean mode of pluralistic underdevelopment, the North European mode of proletarian incorporation, and the Latin mode of hegemonic blanqueamiento or whitening.1 Each mode refers to a unique configuration of ethno-racial ideology, ethno-demographic mix, ethno-class stratification, and level of societal racialization. Each is the product of distinctive socio-historical trajectories, as well as modern economic, political, and migratory processes. All four modes will be briefly outlined, but because of space constraints and the special interests of this volume, the paper will concentrate on the first three modes mentioned above. The paper begins with a demographic portrait of the black diaspora populations circa 2000. We then move to an analysis of the broad patterns of adjustment by the post-diasporic populations of African-ancestry people in the Americas. Part three discusses the origins and formation of the three modes of the Americas. The fourth, and major, part of the chapter discusses the North European ethno-somatic mode then focuses on the nature and interactions between the three modes of special interest: the Afro-Caribbean, Afro-American, and Afro-British. We end with some concluding observations.