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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