Survey: Race is more central than nationality to Black American identity

Most Black Americans say race is more important to their identity and relationships than nationality, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Pew researchers found that 71% of Black American adults said race is “extremely or very important” to how they think about themselves, the highest share for any identity indicator in the survey. Fifty-eight percent said the same of the country where they were born.

By comparison, 44% of the general public said race is “extremely or very important” in their identity, while the largest share — 55% — listed the country of their birth.

“A significant share of Black Americans also say that when something happens to Black people in their local communities, across the nation or around the globe, it affects what happens in their own lives, highlighting a sense of connectedness,” Pew said in a summary of the survey.

Fifty-two percent of Black respondents said “everything or most things that happen to Black people in the United States affect what happens in their own lives,” and 30% said some things that happen nationally to Black people have a personal impact.

In addition, 43% of Black respondents said all or most things that happen to Black people in their local community affect what happens in their own lives, and 41% said they “feel their fates are strongly linked to Black people around the world.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 47 million Black Americans in 2020, making up 14% of the overall population.

Pew surveyed 3,912 Black U.S. adults — and an oversample of 2,887 additional Black Americans — online in English and Spanish on Oct. 4-17. The margin of error for the entire randomized sampling was plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.