ABSTRACT
The term ‘Afro-Caribbean’ commonly refers to those individuals who are of African origin but also of recent Caribbean descent (Phoenix 1988). The UK Afro-Caribbean diaspora is intergenerational, consisting mainly of first-, second-and third-generation populations. In this chapter, the term ‘black’ is often applied synonymously with the term ‘Afro-Caribbean’, as opposed to other groups which have been conventionally labelled black (e.g. ‘Asians’). In addition to physical appearance or skin colour, this term represents both a state of political consciousness and a ‘positive source of identity’ (Pilkington 2003: 37). It is a more appropriate form of expression than ‘black British’, because individuals are not able to fully adopt a British identity given the distinctive ethnic and cultural characteristics of the wider Caribbean community (Stephenson 2002).
