- published: 14 Nov 2012
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Black British is a term used to describe British people of black African descent, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background. The term has been used from the 1950s to refer to Black people from former British colonies in the West Indies (i.e. the New Commonwealth) and Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and consider themselves British. Others are also from former French-speaking colonies in Africa such as Senegal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (which was Belgian), and many of the Black Africans in Britain still speak French as well as their own native languages.
The term 'black' has historically had a number of applications as a racial and political label, and may be used in a wider socio-political context, to encompass a broader range of non-European ethnic minority populations in Britain, though this is a controversial and non-standard definition.
Black British is primarily used as an official category in UK national statistics ethnicity classifications, where it is sub-divided into 'Caribbean', 'African' and 'Other Black' groups.
British people (also referred to as the British, Britons, or informally as Brits or Britishers) are citizens or natives of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, of any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants.British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by birth in the UK or by descent from British nationals. When used in a historical context, the term British people refers to the ancient Britons, the indigenous inhabitants of Great Britain south of the Forth.
Although early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 triggered a sense of British national identity. The notion of Britishness was forged during the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and the First French Empire, and developed further during the Victorian era. The complex history of the formation of the United Kingdom created a "particular sense of nationhood and belonging" in Great Britain; Britishness became "superimposed on much older identities", of English, Scots and Welsh cultures, whose distinctiveness still resist notions of a homogenised British identity. Because of longstanding ethno-sectarian divisions, British identity in Northern Ireland is controversial, but it is held with strong conviction by unionists.