The Impact of the 1970s on Black Identity Development: An Analysis of Psychosocial and Black Existential Perspectives| Stephy Publishers
Abstract
With the
killing of George Floyd in 2020 and the subsequent focus on black existence,
itis perhaps timely to revisit a previous historical period – the 1970s which
saw theemergence of the civil rights movement and the transformation of black
consciousness and identity.Both psychosocial and existential theories highlight
the relationship between context and the development of identity. Drawing on
the work of Erikson, Cross describes stages of identity development from negro
to black which he originally related to the historical context of the black
consciousness period of the 1970s but later, developed into a tool to measure
black identity. This model depicts identity as developing in fixed stages with
objective and measurable characteristics. The black existential approach
focuses on the construction of identity within a context shaped by an
individual’s experiences. Black existential philosophy aims to explore how
different black experiences shape different manifestations of black identity
construction. This articlereviews these two perspectives. I conclude that the
black existential perspective produces richer knowledge about the existence of
black people. Using the example ofhow second generation British born black
Jamaicans constructed their identity during the 1970s, it is possible to see
how this construction was shaped by their lived experiences in Britain at this
time.
Keywords: Black identity, Black existential philosophy, Psychosocial
perspective on black identity, Black existential perspective on black identity,
Black jamaican diaspora.
Introduction
It was not only the
Covid-19 pandemic that shook the world in 2020. The killing of George Floyd in
America not only provoked an outpouring of global outrage, but it alsoreignited
the debate about the value of black existence and the impact of antiblack
racism on black identity. The young black people who are living through this
current historical period will be impacted by this experience and it will
influence their sense of self as they make sense of this and other experiences
that they encounter as they live their lives as black people. Fifty years ago,
the 1970s saw another historical period in which black people in America, Africa,
the Caribbean, and Europe responded to their experience of antiblack racism and
were galvanised collectively, for the first time since the end of slavery, to
restore value to their black existence and construct a new ‘black’ identity.
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