SE2/EP 20: Conversation with Dr. Kelechi Ibe-Lamberts of My Black is Transnational

As an avid podcast listener interested in African immigrants’ experiences and their relationship with their children, I came across My Black is Transnational hosted by Dr. Kelechi Ibe-Lamberts by what I would call faith. I subscribed and became a regular listener, and I enjoyed the dialogues as his guests, mostly the children of African immigrants, dived into diverse topics. In one of his podcast episodes, Dr. Kelechi Ibe-Lamberts had a roundtable discussion titled Growing up immigrants with children of immigrants about their experiences growing up in an immigrants' home. I sent an email to Dr. Kelechi Ibe-Lamberts introducing myself as an African immigrant parent who listens to his podcast for the first time. I told him that African parents also have their perspectives regarding their challenging experiences in America. Since this initial introduction, Dr. Kelechi Ibe-Lamberts and I have been working in collaboration to bring this discussion to the community at large. I have been a guest on his podcast, and I was so delighted when he came to my platform to have a conversation with me. Dr. Kelechi Ibe-Lamberts is a professor and researcher in health behaviors, disparities, and health outcomes among culturally diverse populations. His research interest specifically involves immigrant health and the development of transnational ties among immigrants. He identifies as a 1.5 generation Transnational Nigerian American. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, he immigrated to the United States at 8 years old, where he grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He received his undergraduate and doctorate degrees in Community Health from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He continued his postdoctoral training at the University of Florida until 2018. He currently teaches and conducts research at SUNY Cortland in upstate New York. In 2018, Dr. Kelechi Ibe-Lamberts established My Black is Transnational with the goal of bringing to the forefront the emerging yet overlooked impact that immigration and transnationalism have on Black people across the world. By providing research-based information— concerning issues among culturally diverse Black people—in a casual, relaxed manner, he enjoys creating content that will spark productive discussions topics for his listeners while also educating them on societal issues that include (but are not limited to) health disparities, health behaviors and proposed strategies to increase intra-racial relationships among Black natives and Black immigrants. In this conversation, Dr. Ibe-Lamberts and I talked about the challenges/struggles of growing in an African immigrant home and its benefits. We discussed the dual identity (African Identity and Black experience) in which he identified as a 1.5 generation Transnational Nigerian American. We talked about his college life as a student and as a college professor. We dived into what he understood that the children of immigrants most struggle in college and how immigrant parents prepare their children for college life apart from imposing or advising them on what to study in college. We talked about navigating through social life in college and the struggle to fit into the predominant culture on his college campus, especially coming from an African immigrant home. We further discoursed the diversity of the black experience. Race as it relates to Black Experiences and Race as it relates to African immigrants' Experiences. I always appreciate my conversation with Dr. Kelechi Ibe-Lamberts. Please subscribe to his podcast My Black is Transnational and follow him on Instagram on blacktransnational.