At Home in Blackness: How I Became Black

Efa E. Etoroma

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.6.2.09

Authors

Efa E. Etoroma Concordia University College of Alberta, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.6.2.09

Keywords:

Altercasting, Autoethnography, Black, Blackness, Church, Community, Identity, and Interaction

Abstract

I became and have remained Black in Canada by interacting with Blacks. Altercasting (the “push” from the larger society) moved me into interacting intentionally with Blacks, interacting with Blacks helped make me Black by immersing me in the Black experience, and studying Blacks helped anchor me within the Black community by giving me an understanding of what it means to be Black. In this paper, which is based on autoethnography, I offer a brief overview of the concept of Blackness in Canada and then I discuss the key ways in which my Black identity was developed and is sustained. The key mechanisms discussed are altercasting, interacting with Blacks, and studying the Black community.

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Author Biography

Efa E. Etoroma, Concordia University College of Alberta, Canada

Efa E. Etoroma is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Concordia University College of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Nigerian born, Efa moved to Canada in 1978 and has lived in the provinces of Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. He received his PhD degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada and has published on aspects of Black life in Canada. Efa's current academic research interests include autoethnography, Black community building in Canada, and the social psychology of identity transformation among Blacks in Canada.

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