Writing POC 101

Afro-Caribbean Characters - @Danielleisms

Hi everyone! I'm Danielle and I've been on this website for four years now (so basically a really long time) and it's been so cool to see other members start movements on this website. I live in London and I'm black - more specifically my cultural background is Bajan (Barbados) and Grenadian (Grenada) and I decided to write this because I don't really see characters of a Caribbean background get portrayed much.

1) I think the number thing that bothers me in novels that do feature of a character of a Caribbean background is the fact that 9 times out of 10 they Jamaica. Not every Caribbean person is Jamaican and honestly it gets kind of frustrating when every single Caribbean person is grouped as being such. Yes it may be the most known but there's tonnes others to choose from! - Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Haiti, Dominica etc. Each island has been influenced by different cultures in different ways and has their own way of doing things. The countries that I would say have had the most influence on the Caribbean are Britain, Span, France and Africa but some countries like Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago have a large Indian influence too.

Alsooo: not everything we eat has pepper sauce or 'jerk seasoning' thrown on it. I actually had a teacher tell me once that she made Jamaican Shepard's Pie (which is the most British dish I can think off) and I couldn't help but laugh at that because she just put jerk seasoning on it. My whole class practically died. But yeah we don't put jerk seasoning on everything. Where my mum is from (Barbados) we really like roti which is typically an Indian dish and macaroni cheese is basically a staple at every family get together.

Another effect of colonialism is that it's produced a range of skin tones, hair textures and last names and I personally think this is so cool even though it's created the whole light skin vs dark skin and good hair vs bad hair argument. A lot of black people in general have had a hard time accepting their natural hair. Personally I think it'd be really interesting to see this take place in a novel because even within families you can find a huge variation in skin tone. It can cause dark skin people to feel inferior or light skin people to feel that they aren't accepted as black. Sometimes it can even cause them to feel that they are above the stereotypes that come with being black.

2) One stereotype that I see a lot is that we have a habit of saying 'yah man' or speaking with a thick accent when that just isn't true. (In most cases) In fact it's only really first generation parents that were born there that will speak broken English but even as they assimilate into whatever countries they migrate to their language skills develop and they are fully capable of being literate and even having high paying jobs. Also accents vary from island to island.

3) We're not all loud and rude or ghetto. I mean, we are fairly loud lol but it doesn't come from a disrespectful or unintelligent place. A lot of us were just born into big families and anyone with siblings will probably tell you that we bicker a lot but please stop portraying us as the sassy/angry best friend. I really, really think this stereotype needs to end because the more people keep portraying us as such, the less seriously we get taken in real life.

4) We don't all live in single parent homes. This one gets made fun of some much on twitter and yes divorce is kind of high in our culture but a lot of us do actually know who our fathers are spend time with both sides of the family. Speaking of family most black parents are strict. Beatings aren't uncommon but in my experience this usually becomes less common as you get older because obviously you've been disciplined to know better. A lot of black parents also have high aspirations for their child, typically to go to uni and become an accountant, a lawyer or engineer.

5) Speaking of family - We're really close with our families and people often have house parties for no reason. If you did something, good or bad you'd better believe the rest of your family will find out about it. A lot of my best childhood memories take place during Christmas or New Year's eve with my cousins.

7) & this is a really random fact but for some reason whenever we're sick Vick vapour rub is the first thing our parents reach for. Always. I like it though so it's okay.

So I hope this helped to give some insight into the culture of an afro-Caribbean person! We are people first. Happy writing everyone :)