Much of the contemporary scholarship on Black identities focuses on how multiraciality, immigrant status, class, and neighborhood characteristics shape how social actors negotiate identities. In contrast, little analysis exists of how internal migration and regional origin or ancestry shape such negotiations. The study addresses this gap using interview data to examine how U.S.-born Black Louisianans with Creole heritage, who moved to Los Angeles along with their children during the Great Migration, actively negotiate racial/ethnic identities. The results show that participants negotiate identities situationally, especially when ambiguous appearances or surnames trigger interactional encounters in which they are mis-placed as “foreign” to the United States. Specifically, as migrants from one internal U.S. region to another, they use geographical references to situate Black racial and Creole ethnic identities (e.g., they refer to Louisiana or New Orleans) when interacting with non-Creole African Americans and non-Black people in Los Angeles. The study extends prior research on heterogeneous Black identities by demonstrating how internal migration, mixed racial/ethnic ancestry, and region of origin influence native-born Black American identities.

当代关于黑人身份的奖学金大部分都集中在多种族，移民身份，阶级和邻里特征如何塑造社会参与者如何协商身份方面。相反，很少有关于内部移民和地区起源或血统如何影响这种谈判的分析。该研究使用访谈数据来解决这一差距，以调查在大迁移期间与子女一起移居洛杉矶的美国出生的具有克里奥尔语的黑人路易斯安那人如何积极地协商种族/族裔身份。结果表明，参与者会根据情况协商身份，尤其是当模棱两可的外表或姓氏引发互动性相遇时，他们被误认为对美国而言是“外国人”。具体来说，作为从美国一个内部地区到另一地区的移民，在与非克里奥尔人的非洲裔美国人和洛杉矶的非黑人人互动时，他们使用地理参考来定位黑人种族和克里奥尔人的种族身份（例如，他们指的是路易斯安那州或新奥尔良）。这项研究通过展示内部移民，种族/族裔混合血统和原籍地区如何影响出生于美国的黑人身份，扩展了对黑人异质身份的先前研究。