A Chat with Orly Clerge

How has the expansion of the Black American middle class and the increase in the number of Black immigrants among them since the Civil Rights period transformed the cultural landscape of New York City? In her new book The New Noir: Race, Identity & Diaspora in Black Suburbia, Orly Clerge explores this question and more. Exploring the lived experiences of the people in Queens and Long Island through ethnographic methods, Clerge discovered a racial consciousness spectrum and heterogeneity of experiences among and between people living in these two suburbs of NYC. Presenting deep and rich exploration of history of racial and stratification, the book investigates issues of urbanization and suburbanization, migration, race, class, and family.

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