ABSTRACT
During the 1950s and 1960s, blacks in Britain were defined as ‘coloureds’, in the 1970s they were West Indians, through the 1980s and 1990s they were Afro Caribbean, and now, well into this millennium, they are defined as ‘black British’ – but never English. In very few cases within recent sociological investigation have established typologies of black life in Britain been successfully and permanently challenged. Primary institutions within society have mandated the delineation of blacks without the appropriate agency and consultation. Black people in Britain must therefore define themselves, for themselves, and mandate their own narratives, instead of taking a back seat and allowing others, who have only a fleeting acquaintance with their cultural modality, to do so. The data presented within this ethnography demonstrates that the post-Windrush generation no longer feel compelled to refer to the West Indies as ‘home’ – something that during the 1970s and 1980s was practically unheard of. This is highlighted in ongoing debates surrounding the Hostile Environment Policy, where we observe the collective mobilisation of blacks of West Indian descent for their rightful British status and citizenship to be acknowledged, since arguably they, more than any other group of Commonwealth migrants, have altered what is means to be British.
