Am I British, English or a Trini: Where Do I Belong?

Whether it’s obvious or not the communities you belong too are tied up with your sense of self.
A few superficial examples would be:
You’re the quarterback on the high-school football team. You’re must likely seen as popular, confident, thirst-trap etc.

And you get labeled as a high school jock.
Or you wear a cross necklace every day and talk about all the church events you attend. People are mostly like to associate you with being pious or religious. And you’ll probably get labeled as the Christian.
The communities we align ourselves with help to shape our sense of self...our identity. Sometimes this identity is very personal, it helps us to keep us sane, it makes life a little more bearable, and sometimes this identity is how everybody else sees us. Sometimes, it’s both.
Usually though, we have some say as to how we navigate those identities. We can take off the helmet and the t-shirt, we can take off the cross and keep our extra-curriculars to ourselves.
What happens when you can’t take off the thing that defines you. What happens when you don’t have any say in your identity because it’s already been defined for you.

That’s exactly what I sat down with Daron to chat about. In England, as opposed to let’s say a country like American or Trinidad, being born in the country doesn’t make you an Englishman or woman. Being white does. And who gets to call themselves white? Well, that varies on who you’re asking.

In this episode, Daron and I will be talking about:
1. What is means to be a naturalized, black immigrant living in England

2. How your race affects not only what communities but also what identities you have access to

3. Is your birth-place as important of an identity-marker as we make it out to be
Intrigued yet? Let’s get into it shall we
To access the ebook, How To Make Authentic Friendships In New Places at 75% off, check out www.navigatingculture.co/friends and use the discount code: podcast
See ya next week!
Find episode transcript here: https://www.navigatingculture.co/the-homesickness-cure-podcast-am-i-british-english-or-trini-where-do-i-belong