After I told him that I preferred hard rock and heavy metal music to hip hop, there was a pause. He looked at me as if I had to be joking, and then gave me an amused look.

“You act like you white,” he said. “You one self hating black girl.”

For years after this encounter with an African American man visiting from the United States, me, a young Jamaican woman was haunted by two questions. Was I really a traitor to my race because of the way I acted, how I spoke and what I liked? If so, what exactly was black identity anyway?

The concept of identity may be described as the unique characteristics by which a person, object or group can be recognised. Therefore, if one were to define “black identity” it would be the characteristics by which black people or a portion of black people living in the black diaspora may be recognised, or, to put things more simply, it is “who they really are.” Black identity in the black diaspora of the Western World is usually dependent upon the common history of slavery. Thus, because of this common history of slavery, black people living in the Americas
are seen to have inherited certain legacies, culture and belief systems from their African slave ancestors.

On the other hand, it may be debated that there is no one black identity, as the history of many places with a black population in the Americas
differ. For example, the United States is composed of mostly European descendants, which will indicate that most of the culture inherited by the African Americans by their slave ancestors would have been diluted over the years, and most of them, would adopt a culture that is mostly European. However, in many places in the English speaking Caribbean, there were more slaves than white English masters, and thus, many aspects of the African culture survived. Although the culture is also mixed with European, Amerindian and some Asian cultures, the African legacies still stand out.

Like in the example I mentioned at the start of the article, it is obvious that these days, who black people are no longer seem to be defined by their history, but instead, how they are portrayed especially in the American media. Many of us might be familiar with the common media stereotypes of the loud, ignorant African Americans who usually reside in the ghettoes of North America. The men are usually rogues and violent criminals who live their lives dreaming of becoming popular rap stars. Then, many of us are also familiar with how the African American women are portrayed in hip hop culture and music videos, as being nothing but mere sex symbols who can be disposed at anytime by the men.

Hip hop and rap seems to have defined who black people are and how they should act, not only in the United States, but in many countries around the world. It is believed even amongst the black race, that once you as a black person, no matter where you are from, do not portray the negative stereotypes of black people portrayed in the media, then, as my African American friend said, “you are self hating” and “a traitor to your race.” Does that now mean that I should force myself to like certain types of music? Should I now, as a woman make my sole goal in life being attractive to the opposite sex, and then, move out of my upper middle class home to the ghetto? Perhaps it will reinforce my “blackness.”

Another aspect of who black identity that I have noticed a lot of African Americans don’t seem to focus on is the aspect of colour prejudice. By colour prejudice, I don’t mean racial prejudice either, but what I mean is the tendency of those blacks who have a lighter skin colour to receive more preferences sometimes in life, even amongst blacks. There is the same problem here in Jamaica, whereas, we now have a problem with skin bleaching amongst some people in the lower classes. However, I had recently come to understand that the same thing is and was happening for some time in the African American community. How can a set of black people know and accept who they are if they continue to practice something such as that? Colour prejudice even manifests itself in a lot of popular black shows on American television as well, which tends to manifest itself subtley in things such as, for example, in a family setting, the mother would usually be light skinned or biracial. It even had occurred in many movies where the pretty black girl, the one who the main character is usually after, is usually portrayed by biracial or very light skinned black women. Is this not saying something about the African American society?

In the end, I have come to the conclusion that blacks in the black diaspora, particularly African Americans do not know who they are. Black identity is now defined by popular black culture, which most of the time has nothing to do with our common history of slavery.