UCLA

Dominant narratives of immigration are inextricably linked to race and the focus is almost exclusively on non-Black Latinx populations, invisibilizing Black migrants and their experiences in these narratives. We know that Black immigrants are overrepresented in arrests and deportations, not solely as a function of their legal status, but rather as a consequence of being Black in America. We also know that, unlike other immigrants, who’s “foreignness” marks them as other, shaping their interaction with the legal system, Black immigrants experience hyper-surveillance, criminalization, are pathologized, and are funneled through the U.S. carceral system at alarmingly high rates. In order to disrupt the violence of erasure, this thesis uses storytelling as a Black Feminist method and political praxis to explore undocuBlack women’s interiority which serves as a wild and sacred dream space to self-make. This work is made possible because what is understood about home, belonging, and representation is not taken for granted, and what Black women feel and know is real and valid. Using an interdisciplinary framework, this thesis centers the narratives of five undocuBlack women to describe the possibilities of Black social life and world making that they create. Together these narratives elucidate how undocuBlack subjects: make home spaces in light of geographic dispossession, practice self-making through autonomy and the use of interiority, and illuminate the potential for belonging through rightful, accurate, and meaningful representation.