Identity Pt2: Race and Religion

I once attended a training course where the ice breaker asked all the delegates to describe themselves in seven words or phrases ie fun-loving, creative. Of the ten delegates all three black delegates chose to mention 'black'. None of the white delegates used their race to define themselves in the exercise. The one asian female in the room included 'muslim' in her description. Everyone mentioned their gender. Of course people said party-animal, mother-of-three etc but thats not really the area I'd like to focus on here. It was interesting discussing the results with the group and finding out why each of the elements was important to each of the individuals and why all the elements that make us minorities came up. I subsequently discussed this with a friend who is from eastern Nigeria and studied in the University of Lagos in the nineties. He said while in University he thought of himself as 'Igbo' but since living in the UK he has increasingly considered himself black.

In response to the first article, Sola Baale said "the Jews, over the years and centuries have lived in several places (Russia, Germany, Britain, everywhere in short), yet they tag themselves as Jews and perhaps prefixing with the place they live in e.g (Russian jew) to reflect influences and sense of belonging". Thus it seems they are Jews first and Russians, Britons etc second. Malcolm X opined in his autobiography how from visiting Mecca he had a sense of brotherhood with Muslims irrespective of their colour or place of origin. These sentiments have been echoed by some of my friends who are muslims who have stated they think of themselves as Muslims first before their nationality be it Pakistani, Indian or British.

The one-drop rule was developed in the American Southern States where even a single drop of "black blood" makes a person "black". It was initially conceived as a racist means of classification and also to ensure that the children of slaves by Slave owners would still be slaves. For African Americans, the one-drop system of racial classification became a tool for ethnic solidarity uniting blacks and people of mixed race background under the umbrella of Black. In South Africa during apartheid the population was classified into four groups: Black, White, Indian, and "Coloured". The coloured group was for people of mixed racial parentage and due to the flawed system of classification members of the same family could find themselves in different race groups. The term 'coloured' continues to be used in South Africa in the post-apartheid era. Over here in the UK some British people consider the term Coloured to be pejorative or, at least, out-moded (everytime I've been called coloured its been by someone over seventy who still believes they are being liberal). There is a collection of writing on some of the internal conflicts that take place within people of a multi-racial background who are more prone to being asked to choose which aspect of their cultural history they would mostly like to identify with. The term "identity crisis" was also coined to describe this internal conflict.

In the midst of the madness of my last 100 words I've been trying to explore how we think of our selves and how the world we live in perceives us. I remember recently when the BBC were exploring the results of the Macpherson report they were seeking an images that would portray black people as a visual with the narative as a backdrop and they used visuals of various club events. That really worried me as I'm sure if the researchers had even tried they could have come up with more positive images of black people (come on doesn't anyone go to church as much as black people!). Any Nigerian male that has been to clubs in Northern UK will be familiar with being asked if they have any weed for sale, Nigerian females tourists in Spain will probably be familiar with being followed in stores by the store detectives or being taken for prostitutes on the streets. We are probably all familiar with being expected to know all Bob Marley song lyrics 'jus cause we is black'.

To what extent is our appreciation of ourselves impacted upon by social stereotypes, how do the media depictions of 'black' culture impact upon our desire for equity, what is the effect of the corporate packaging of black culture as being hip, what image do we see when we look at ourselves in the mirror and would this image be different if we lived in a different country? All these questions and more are just running round my head right now and I just don't have enough time to put them all down.