Reimagining Blackness and Belonging: African Refugee Youth and Sociopolitical Engagement In the Wake of Racialized Violence

Background and Purpose:
At a critical moment for democracy and racial justice, understanding how Black youth engage sociopolitically across diasporic contexts is essential to advancing the common good. This study examines how Banyamulenge Congolese refugee youth negotiate meanings of Blackness, belonging, and sociopolitical engagement in the United States following the police killing of a young Congolese refugee man. Grounded in a racial-spatial framework informed by Black geographies and Black feminist thought, the study asks: (1) How do African refugee youth construct and interpret Blackness within the U.S. racial landscape? (2) How do these constructions shape their sociopolitical engagement following racialized state violence? and (3) What possibilities for solidarity and democratic participation emerge through these engagements? By centering Black diasporic youth perspectives, this research advances social work inquiry as a vehicle for strengthening inclusive and participatory democratic futures.

Methods:
This qualitative study draws on data from a broader ethnographic project focused on African refugee youth in the United States. The analysis centers on a community-led action response organized by Banyamulenge youth following the police killing, supplemented by in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 18 Banyamulenge refugee youth. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling within community networks to capture variation in gender, age, and levels of civic engagement. Data collection included participant observation at community events, youth council meetings and interviews exploring identity, Blackness, belonging, and political action. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis informed by racial-spatial theory, with iterative coding to identify patterns in how Blackness is constructed, contested, and mobilized in relation to sociopolitical engagement.

Results:
Findings reveal two interconnected themes shaping how youth understand and engage Blackness. First, Blackness was experienced as spatially and historically situated, shaped by relationships to homeland, displacement, and racialization in the United States. Youth drew on their identities as African and Banyamulenge to interpret anti-Black violence, at times positioning themselves in relation to dominant narratives of Black American life while also negotiating their place within them. Second, Blackness emerged as a dynamic and evolving framework for political engagement. Although some youth initially expressed distance from African American experiences, many came to recognize shared conditions of racialized surveillance, constrained mobility, and state violence. These recognitions fostered emergent forms of diasporic solidarity, through which Blackness became a basis for collective action and reimagined belonging. Participation in community response efforts further deepened youths’ sense of political responsibility and connection across Black communities.

Conclusions and Implications:
This study underscores the importance of centering Black diasporic perspectives in social work research to advance democratic participation and inclusion. Rather than treating difference as fragmentation, the findings highlight how diverse Black identities can generate new forms of solidarity, political imagination, and collective action. Social work practice and policy must create conditions that support dialogue across Black communities, recognize the multiplicity of Black experiences, and address structural forms of anti-Blackness that shape civic life.