Black Away from Home: The Shifting Character of Social and Ethnic Identity of African-American Sojourners

This is an exploratory study that examines how the varying experiences among African-American sojourners play a role in how a African American on the micro or individual level, personally defines her/his blackness. The text discusses the notion of identity and its applicability to the Black experience. The introduction of the identity biography challenges the notion of collective identity. The interactive nature of the identity biography addresses that Blacks in America may have a social, interpersonal, intracultural connection to one another; however there can be no pre-determined set of factors or characteristics that will define them collectively. It calls to question whether or not it is worth while to question if someone is "black enough."