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Who is African-American?

I was born in Jamaica and came to the United States of America when I was 6 years old. Although its’ a term often reserved for the children of Jamaican parents born in the United States I’ve often considered myself “Jamerican”. A fusion. Not quite one or the other but a culmination of both experiences, occupying a unique social location only children who seek to navigate the terrain of assimlating to the nation their parents adopted while seeking to honor the cultures of “back home” can fully comprehend.

Going back over 2 decades, the authenticity of my “Blackness” was often challenged because my version of Black did not encompass the consumption of grits and collard greens and a host of other practices which seemed inconsequential to me. My peers in elementatry school would ask me if Jamaicans lived in huts or trees and they wondered if we wore clothes. Not so much these days. Jamaican food stores and West Indian markets pepper various street corners and neighborhoods. Hip Hop Stations must include reggae in their daily rotation in order to be considered relevant. Jamaican vernacular and dance styles in many ways are now at the heart of African American pop culture. I venture to say that in many major metropolitan areas where immigrants tend to coalesc there is a strong Jamaican/West Indian presence (at least on the east coast).

Despite the fact that Carribbean Americans have been in the US for a very long time the clip above has brought to my mind questions I’ve often pondered: Am I, was I or will I ever be African-American? Is the term African- American too specific or too vague to capture my experience? Although I’ve never been offended by the term I’ve never felt that it captured the essence of my experience the way “Jamerican” or “Afro-Carribbean American” does. But then again does negating the term altogether relinquish my ability to claim that yes African-Americans eat collard greens and yes they eat collaloo and green bannana too.