This paper explores the manner in which collective action and memory are constructed through both objective and subjective: experiences of racism by second-generation Haitian youth in Quebec. It examines the influence of struggle, political currents and of American "heroes" on the increasingly Diaspora-like representations that these young people are making of their history, their identity, and their place in Quebec society. To "explain" their immediate social experience, they selectively appropriate fragments of history and memory taken from different cultural groups. This paper presents some data from a sociological intervention carried out with a group of youth from Montréal-Nord, as well as certain elements taken from individual interviews with youth people between the ages of 15 and 29.