North Canyon High School graduate Esosa Joanne Iyoha talks about African-Americans as an outside group.
When the 22-year-old Nigerian immigrant took standardized tests in school, she skipped over the line for African-Americans and marked "other."
Then, if space permitted, she penciled in "African."
"I donât associate myself with slavery," said the registered nurse at Mayo Clinic Hospital in northeast Phoenix. "And I donât really associate myself with being African-American."
But Iyoha is black.
And tonight she will stand before U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OâConnor â with 53 other immigrants from across the globe â and swear allegiance to the United States in a special Citizenship Day ceremony at Gilbertâs Mesquite High School.
Technically, Iyoha will become an African-American.
But the nation might have to rethink its definition of the term as thousands of African immigrants such as Iyoha flock to the United States each year. About 50,000 Africans arrived in 2004 â more than the number who came during any of the peak years of the American slave trade...
These new African-Americans lack ties to American slavery and the inner city culture frequently associated with black America. Many grew up in middle-class, two-parent families and have access to social networks that include doctors, nurses, engineers, professors and business executives.
Iyohaâs father is a microbiologist, her mother is a registered nurse, and the family lives in a two-story stucco house at the foot of a desert mountain...
The wave of African immigration started in the 1970s with refugees such as Harelimana. But thousands of African immigrants today come from stable homes unaffected by war.
"Youâre getting the best and the brightest from Africa," said Osaro Ighodaro, assistant academic director at Arizona State University. "People who have the resources are deliberately making the choice to come here..."
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