Scholars of this theory posited that the African diaspora was an experience of constantly coping with and resisting white supremacy in its myriad manifestations, which fundamentally affected how diasporic identity was formed. Such usages were profoundly vindicationist because people of African descent outside the continent often constituted a minority group in a host country, had a dubious and tenuous relationship to citizenship, and often faced political, economic, and social injustice. Thus, it was necessary to justify why they were worthy of the full benefits of society. It was also necessary to valorize African cultural retentions and connections that survived in the New World to combat Eurocentric notions that people of African descent had no history or culture worthy of study. As a 'stateless diaspora' - that is, a dispersed group that lacks an independent State because of lack of resources, power, or desire (Sheffer, 2003, p. 74-75) - the African diaspora imagined Africa in myriad ways to construct a site of belonging that could be a place of repatriation, racial revitalization, potential freedom, and return to African roots.  
As "globalization" became the term used to reflect the ethos of the post1970 era, the focus of the African diaspora shifted from roots, the nation, and the homeland to fluidity, multiple temporalities, and exchange between sites within the diaspora. According to James Clifford, decolonization, increased immigration, and global communication and transport required