Over the last four decades, more African immigrants (or continental Africans) have voluntarily immigrated to America than were reportedly shipped to America through the slave trade. As continental Africans are making their homes in American cities, towns and rural communities, they are slowly changing the dynamics of American residential (Massey, Mooney, Torres, 2007; Schmidt, Alex-Assensoh, Aoki and Hero, 2010); cultural and economic life (Stoller 2002) and calling into question the very meaning of the terms "Black" and "African-American". Yet, when it comes to American politics, the presence of voluntary African immigrants is largely over-looked, and it is assumed that Black political behavior in America reflects unified, homogenous and distinctive racialized perspectives based on common ancestry, despite the large waves of African immigrants with diverse ethnic, national, cultural, and ideological differences. Marshalling a diverse array of data on African immigrants and native-born African-Americans, this analysis examines similarities and contrasts between native-born African-Americans and their African immigrant counterparts. The analysis demonstrates the emergence of multiple black ethnic identities, growing socioeconomic advantage of African immigrants over African-Americans as well as Latinos, and varied forms of political socialization as a result of vastly different associational and religious networks. Together, these trends signal the possible emergence of a new Black Politics that is more transnational and much less distinctive than in previous decades, with profound implications for traditional views, black political beliefs, and behavior within the context of American racial politics. © 2009 Brill Academic Publishers.

immigrants Slavery/slave trade Associational dynamics Immigration politics African diaspora Racial politics Ethnic politics Black politics African-Americans African immigrants

slavery politics socioeconomic status ethnicity slave African American Latino people black population African immigrant immigration racial disparity cultural identity