Remember Who You Are....
Often times I struggle with my immigrant identity. I'm proud of my heritage but growing up there were plenty of instances both externally and internally (family members) in which my Jamaicaness was questioned or attacked. That struggle has carried on even today and gets riled up just about every February. In the US, February is Black History Month where we as a nation are supposed to celebrate and laud the accomplishments & contributions of Black folx. Growing up here though, it was always the same sort of narrative...Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and so forth. As a Jamaican American I always felt detached from those heroes...they are tied to my history but really still felt foreign. When a Jamaican was mentioned in class or otherwise, it tended to be Marcus Garvey who though being Jamaican represented such perceived "radical" ideals that he was regulated to the footnote category of Black History. As in he existed, he had some ideas, th...