Writing POC 101

Black British Characters - @_empvess

In most books that aren't written by people from Britain, you see basically the same description of a British person. They have this posh Queen resembling vernacular and are into punk rock music and lastly... they are White.

However, Britain is so much more culturally influenced than that. Some describe America as a melting pot because it blends all types of different cultures together but in Britain I would describe it as more of a chunky stew because all our cultures, beliefs and customs stand out so much more.

For this specific chapter, I'll be focusing more on Black people as I'm black myself and I understand this experience more.

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Black people in Britain are largely unrepresented in movies, books, music videos and such... and if they are represented then they are really misrepresented.

I remember watching mindless behaviour's Mrs Right and shaking my head when the girl from London appeared. I seriously wondered if this was what people thought of when they envisioned British people. For those who haven't seen it, she was a white girl wearing a punk rock outfit with spiky red hair.

Then when I would read UK books I would see numerous comments next to a slang word. People would be like

"is this English?"

"what does this even mean."

"translation please."

I had and still have mixed reactions to these kind of comments.

I understand that you may not understand what our slang means but you can Google it quite simply. You don't need to bash it, that's just rude.

It's like people either expect us to be White British or African American.

Black people In the UK are generally immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean (although I'm sure there are Black people from other parts of the world).

Our culture is really influenced by our origins.

SLANG

Our slang is a large mixture of Caribbean patois, African pidgin/creole and other languages. Words like: Mandem, pickney and rassclart are frequently used.

FOOD

Our culture also provides us with traditional dishes from our countries of origin. Foods such as "ackee and saltfish" and "jollof rice" are eaten as part of a normal diet.

MEDIA

The media in the UK is influenced not only by the culture of our origins but also by American culture.

This has a lot to do with the fact that America is a trendsetter for a lot of other parts of the world.

Our musical genres are influenced by hip hop and r&b a little but we still manage to maintain our uniqueness.

Genres like:

Grime, Afrobeats, Bashment

Are a part of Black culture in the UK. You would probably hear these genres of music in a rave or an Afro-Caribbean nightclub. (Other genres like Rap, r&b and EDM are played as well)

Grime is basically a British version of hip hop. It's differences are quite small. The main difference is the accent of the rapper but there are other differences in the beat (A Grime beat tends to be more minimalistic and simple than hip hop) and lyrics because they contain slang people from other countries may not understand.

If you're curious and interested in listening to this then here are some famous artists:

Skepta

Chip

Section Boyz

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Krept & Konan

There are loads more but these are some of the most famous. Artists from America sometimes do collaborations with them. I know Chris Brown recently released a song with Section Boyz and Skepta and Drake have made songs together

Afrobeats is basically music from Africa. It is sometimes accompanied with dances like: Azonto, Alkayida and Shoki

Famous artists of this genre are:

Wizkid (he was featured on One Dance by Drake)

Burna Boy

Davido

Tiwa Savage

There are loads of other famous artists these are just some.

Lastly, Bashment is a genre of music from the Caribbean. You'll hear it a lot in raves. Some of my favourite songs are from here.

Famous artists of this genre:

Spice

Konshens

Popcaan

Gyptian

Gage

MOVIES

There are movies and TV shows out there that show quite well how being black in London is.

Shows like: Top Boy, Some Girls, Youngers

And movies like: Kidulthood and Bullet Boy.

These are all that are coming to mind at the moment but there are loads more out there.

So.... tips for writing a black British character

-they use slang both normal universal slang and British slang

-they are influenced by their ethnic background a lot (when describing where their from they'll say they're country of origin)

-We're not all white with spiky red hair and loads of piercings.

(DISCLAIMER: I'm not and I repeat not trying to generalise all British Black people. There are some Black people that don't act like this)

If you're interested in reading some books that feature British Black characters then you can take a look at my reading list called "home". Some of the best ones are in there.

Peace and love

Victorious