Pauline: this is a damned good question I wonder how it will be answered if it can be answered.. personally i don't think that there is such a thing as 'black' british culture..but i wait and stand to be corrected on this issue..

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Wow that is a big question!

Here goes:

Black British culture could be described as an afro-caribbean or africanborn in Britain,being raised witha combination of West Indian/African mannerisms at home and English mannerisms etc through school, interraction with white counterparts, mediaand work. More often than not, the childdeals with cultural aspects of his lifestyle at homebut also finds that he/shehas to been seen to be loyal to the country of their birth, thereby creating much confusion in that when they do visit their parents birth-country they are confronted with being seen as "foreigners", particularly children of Jamaican parentage.

Therefore, dependent on the spirit of the child,the decision is made to create a "clan" of their own which combines all forms of communicative speech as suggested by "The Realmiss", food consumption is pretty much cosmopolitan as well as music and clothing. There's no real loyalty to one aspect of being raised byparents of west indian/african originas the child is forced to more or less reflect all sides in order to survive in Britain.

confused2 I've confused myself now!! Definitely a paradox!

No, I don't believe there is such a thing as "Black British Culture". It's interesting that we define who we are by "where" we are born rather from "whom" we are born. I feel that culture is something that defines a group of people and how they live, not necessarily where they live. In some ways the Asians in Britain, at least the first generation actually bought their way of life to Britain and seemed to maintain it much better than West Indians do. They've managed to secure mosques in most places and are much more "tight" than the black community. However, the second generation have taken on some aspects of "western" ideals such as clothing and the "bling-bling" ideals of black rap stars but there is more of a loyalty to their culture than is seen with some of us in the black community.


I know a guy who, if he was standing behind you and spoke, you'd think he was a hard-core cockney from the East End when in fact, he's 6ft, black guy with a pechant for rock music and beer and yet has an appreciation for black women and women in general!!


This is a pretty good topic which I feel will go on and I hope to learn much from it.



peacein&out

Sorry the above posted twice, hand slipped



AQ

of course there is a black british culture. for detailed read go to your libraray and get or even buy- Black British Cultural Studies a reader edited by houston a baker jr et al. look for the articles by stuart hall. in fact read staurt halls work. he writes about black british culture and how we a represented. some pf his work he links with his carribbean heritage. it is very interesting stuff. there is also teh windrush books

to say that we do not have a culture is silly. if anything black people in the uk have two cultures that combine to give them a unique culture afro-british or however you want to put it.

Ladyday: Thats interesting...is it possible for you to do some reasearch and tell what Stuart Hall identifies as Black british culture..I think it would make for an interesting debate..

There is no such thing as Black British Culture. Most Black people, even if they are born in Britain and have lived here all their life, dont percieve themselves 2 b British. They percieve themselves 2 b from the country their parents originated from. Black people should embrace their Britishness instead of trying 2 segregate themselves even more

[font="Times New Roman"][size=2]It is easy for people to say that there is no such thing as cultures, however cultural identity is influenced by a person’s immediate circumstance, such as race and nationality, economic opportunity, visibility of role models and so on. Stuart Hall states that identity “is a production, which is never complete, always in process and always constituted within not outside, representation. The past for African Caribbean people in

As far as i am concerned i am a born brit who comes from west indian parents, had a real (not imagined) west indian upbriging, however raised partially in the uk. but also i have lived in the states during my almost beginnings and thus have influences from american culture. Within each national culture there are subcultures african caribbean irish english scottish wales whatever. people can be divided up into socio-economic or demographic groups.

fredblack are you saying that you have no culture or only see yourself as a britain and only that. that britain is your be all and end all?are people wrong in saying there is a youth culture etc. i like my friends dont allow britain to be all that we are defined as indeed once there was africa for all mankind but my great-parents came from islands.

there are certain things that only black people traditionally do certain things that different people do based on their culture. when comparing the pride in ones culture between the usa and uk i find uk blacks less proud in who they are but at the same time aware americans have no problms with being american plus their own sub-culture.

yankite i studies some of raymond williams work, in media he proved useful i also looked at dominic strinati jonathan rutherford etc. i have read boks by people of varying cultures. any suggestions on other books.

Forum: bring this discussion right back to the question: Black British Culture what is it?

My Collins Sociology dictionary identifies culture as the following:

Culture maybe taken as consituting the 'way of life' of an entire society and this will include codes of manners, dress, Langauge, rituals, norms of behaviour and systems of belief..

Ok on this point what i'm now asking is for somebody to identify Black british culture by means of;

1. codes of manners.
2. Dress.
3. language
4. Rituals
5. Norms
6. belief systems..

Any takers?

i did read about the national archives at bbc website in relation to the genetic decoding of heritage the motherland tv show. it showed some black peopel with lost heritage and others who still held on to their culture

by the way has anyone been to the liverpool museum that has a huge thing on the slave trade in britain.

Kunjufu wrote:
Sorry to repeat this post but are there seriously no takers on this point, is no one able to define what Black british culture really is...