Manchester Hall

Abstract: Semi-structured interviews, participant observations along with ethnographic and autoethnographic approaches have produced a grounded theory on the racialization process People of African Descent (PAD) encounter in Poland. The Racial Consciousness Continuum (RCC) provides "scaffolding" and "language" scholars in Poland and other European locales can use to describe how PAD individuals interpret their relationship being "Black" among other racialized categories the RCC model delineates. Conversations pertaining to a "Disconnected Diaspora" arose from the data, providing a nuanced view of community (or the lack of it) PAD individuals feel and the RCC model provides a way to capture these conversations. Autoethnography provides another way to explain the relevance and relationship a PAD American researcher encounters as he researches Antiblack racism in an understudied part of Europe. The RCC theory is inspired by the work of Anna Julia Cooper and W.E.B. Dubois to further contextualize and scholarly frame Antiblackness conversations. My project answers questions on prevailing scholarly conversations in the region on Antiblack racism and what gaps exist and persist in prevailing literature in the American sociological academy.