 Hello and welcome to this video summarizing everything you need to know when it comes to studying Raymond Antrobus' poem, Jamaican British. Now this poem appears in the Edexcel Belonging Anthology and it's a really powerful poem which shows that he straddles different dualities and I'm going to go into detail on what that means okay. However, before we look at the poem and we analyze its language form and structure it's really important to begin first with some contextual information that influence the writing of this poem okay. So, Raymond Antrobus himself has a really interesting background. Firstly, bear in mind that he's a contemporary mixed race writer okay so he's Jamaican and British so he does explore this within of course his poem however there's other elements to his background that are really intriguing and of course also influence his writing okay and maybe some of these elements you don't quite know okay so I definitely would suggest really paying attention to these contextual factors so as you can see behind me I've created a brief mind map of the key contextual information that you need to know relating to this poet so let's go over it first. Now as I've mentioned he was born to an English mother and a Jamaican father okay and he was born in 1986 and he grew up in Hackney which is an East London okay so he's mixed race his mom is English and his dad is Jamaican okay. So the poem itself Jamaican British was published in 2018 making it a modern contemporary poem and it explores different dualities that he straddles okay so there's two sides to his character and there's lots of different facets of his character that he kind of straddles which means that he is kind of between two different worlds and of course this ties into the whole idea and the whole theme of the anthology which is to do with belonging and part of belonging part of belonging somewhere is to do with identity. Now one of the issues particularly explored within the this anthology in the collection especially by the mixed race poets is this question of identity because you are of mixed heritage and of course this is also obviously explored within Jamaican British so you're not necessarily fully Jamaican but you're also not necessarily fully English so there's that duality to your background and you either neither belong too fully to one culture but of course also there's the flip side in which both cultures can embrace you okay however it can be a very complex line to toe if you are of mixed race heritage and of course this is what is explored within this poem. The other contextual factor is of course as I've mentioned that his work explores his mixed race heritage as well as his identity which is sometimes conflicting okay because as I've mentioned he is both of Jamaican descent but equally he is of English descent and historically there has been a clash between the two bear in mind that Jamaica is part of the British Commonwealth it is a country that was colonised by England at the height of the British Empire there was a huge slave trade and of course there is a history of violent oppression on the part of the British in Jamaica of course also using slaves in order to benefit the British side so there's that conflict that kind of dark side to his history but of course there's also the positive side to his history there's this notion of the richness of Jamaican culture that hasn't been imported into England but also vice versa okay the richness of English culture that is also present in Jamaica there's lots of facets within British culture that are celebrated and that he wishes to celebrate but of course there is a lot of constant friction when it comes to his mixed race heritage again this is deeply explored within this poem the other contextual factor that maybe you didn't know is that Antrobus was born deaf so he is also a deaf poet okay and his family didn't actually realise he was deaf for the first seven years of his life so he actually within those first seven years because everybody thought maybe he might be dyslexic you know he learned how to navigate and how to pass as somebody that can hear right rather than being a deaf person okay so that's another identity that's another duality to his character that he's learnt to straddle okay passing for somebody that can hear and even when he graduated from university actually entered into the workforce but sometimes of course in one of his interviews he does say that he obviously passed for being somebody that can hear but then that posed him difficulties later on okay so also that's another element of his identity this idea of being somebody who also is a deaf poet okay and also this again is interesting because when it comes to poetry poetry like music usually is made to be performed to listeners but of course that can also be performed to people who are deaf okay so there's that interesting duality that's also straddled by Antrobus himself the other thing of course as I've mentioned is that he has often turned to poetry in order to channel his interior emotions as a deaf writer and in a really interesting interview that he gave to NPR you can find this interview available online he had this interview in 2021 to quote his own words he states poetry was a way for me just to write what my truth was okay so again when it comes to his writing he straddles different identities okay so he's towing the line between being both mixed race okay being black and white never fully you know maybe feeling like he belongs to one side or the other but also passing for hearing person when he's deaf and of course even within the poem Jamaica British passing for somebody that might look white because he's very fair but actually he's black also okay so there's this interesting kind of straddling and duality with an identity that's explored within this poem and hence why it's really important to understand how he's influenced contextually I keep on mentioning context because context is equally important to understand when you're reading a poem in addition to of course understanding the poem itself the message and analysing it in terms of language structure and form okay so when you're writing an essay on this poem and indeed any poem within the eddick cell anthology you need to demonstrate both an understanding of the poem itself its message the techniques the writer uses for the narrator but equally you need to also demonstrate an understanding of context okay and that this is what you need to show in terms of your understanding of Jamaican British with context so now that we've got that out of the way let's examine the poem and let's analyse it in detail so let's have a read of this poem Jamaican British after Aaron Samuels some people would deny that I'm Jamaican British Anglernose, hair straight. No way can I be Jamaican British. They think I say I'm black when I say Jamaican British but the English boys at school made me choose Jamaican British half-caste half-mule house-slave Jamaican British, light-skinned straight milk privilege Jamaican British, air-caloo, plantain, jerk chicken, I'm Jamaican. British don't know how to serve our dishes they enslaved us. In school our four-to-boy in the lunch hall Jamaican at home told dad I hate them I hate them Jamaicans I'm British he laughed and said you cannot love sugar and hate your sweetness took me straight to Jamaica passport British cousins in Kingston called Jar English proud to have someone in the family British plantation lineage World War service how do I serve Jamaican British we're knowing how to war is Jamaican British so of course this poem is really powerful because it reflects the identity clash that the speaker has at being mixed race okay so they are really wondering what really is the heritage what is the lineage because on the one hand they are Jamaican so they are from the Caribbean but also on the other hand they are partly British so they're also from the UK and this is reflecting the sense of not fully feeling like they belong to one culture fully versus another and this continuous inner conflict that they experience in this inner turmoil due to the mixed race heritage so let's analyze each of the stanzas within this poem make sure you pay attention to the title of the poem itself because it emphasizes this mixed race heritage that the speaker is really grappling with and of course this also reflects Raymond Antrobus's own mixed race heritage which he constantly reflects on and a lot of his writing always fixes on what mixed race heritage and mixed race identity really looks like now in the first verse the speaker states some people would deny him Jamaican British the assonance of oh in the words some and people as well as the assonance of e within these words creates a very vague undefined image of people placing the speaker in a category and almost forcing an identity onto him he's mixed race so it's almost really hard to place him in one versus another therefore they just force an identity so here we can see that the speaker is a little bit annoyed because these people are saying they're not Jamaican British they're denying this and the verb deny highlights the ignorance of these people who try to define and label them by stating what they're not furthermore the term Jamaican British and of course this is also the title of the poem this repetition of the poem's title shows the speaker's constant obsession and preoccupation with understanding his mixed race identity as well as his mixed race heritage this is something that they are really finding difficult to grapple with furthermore the minor sentences anglonose hair straight reflect people relying on very racist stereotypical labels to judge who he is okay you've got an English nose okay a straight nose you also have straight hair therefore that means you're British you're white however the speaker obviously finds this restrictive because that is also denying one half of him then the second line of the first stanza so anglonose hair straight nowhere can I be Jamaican British just these series of short sentences are powerful because they represent the ignorant blunt manner in which people speak to him and define him they say oh you've got you look like this therefore nowhere can you be Jamaican British in the second verse the speaker reasserts they think I say in black when I'm Jamaican British and the alliteration of tea in they and think reflects the speaker's anger at these ignorant assumptions also the repetition of the words I say shows the speaker is trying to have autonomy they're trying to reclaim who they are they're trying to identify themselves but people aren't listening furthermore the constant contrast between black and English continues here so the speaker is contrasting these two different races and almost they live separately especially where he's grown up but both these identities live within him he's mixed so he's finding it very difficult to reconcile this then he states the English boys made me choose now the alliteration of M in made and me suggests violence and force and making him choose between one identity versus another are you Jamaican are you British now the caesura hair Jamaican and then there's a comma and then British again shows the division between the two it divides the two identities then in the third verse the speaker lists half cast half mill house slave so the syndicant hair is quite shocking and horrifying because it refers to how mixed race people were labeled during the period of slavery in Jamaica okay so remember the words half cast and half mill and even half how slave these are all really derogatory racist labels and he's wondering whether people especially racist the racist elements of British society see still see him as this then the reference and the repetition of Jamaican British hair linguistically blurs this line okay so it breaks down these separate identities then he lists other attributes and other traits that people still see within him light skin straight male privileged and the parallelism between half cast half mill house slave so that first bit shows you know a weakened person someone with a weak status in society versus light skin straight male privilege these people tend to have a stronger position in society there's a parallelism created here he's reflecting on the other half of his heritage the more privileged white side and the parts that go with his appearance however he still falls really conflicted because he doesn't necessarily completely embody all of these ideals then in the fourth stanza he lists air kalu plantain jerk chicken and this is in the list very well known Jamaican dishes which are quite delicious then he states I'm Jamaican and here the sezura just before I'm Jamaican highlights that it is crucial this element and especially even food is a crucial part of his identity and especially Jamaican food and it's something that he's proud of also he states in the following line they enslaved us now here the sezura just before the word they and the third person pronoun highlights the history and conflict between us and them okay so they who is this is the British white colonial masters versus us the black Caribbean slaves this contrast highlights the history of conflict between British and Jamaicans however he embodies both he is both white and black however even if white and black have had a history of conflict both of them live within him and this again creates a sense of clash in his identity moreover the verb enslaved continues to be a reminder of the painful and uncomfortable reality of slavery that existed in British and Jamaican history and this is again woven into his identity in the following stanza he mentions at school I fought a boy in the launch horse now here the violent verb fought shows a struggle and internal fights so now in school at one point he was rejecting his Jamaican side he fought a boy who is Jamaican almost like he's refusing his black side then also the mention of Jamaican of course the sezura emphasizes this and the noun it highlights his rejection of his Jamaican heritage so this is showing maybe a phase in his life when he only just wanted to be seen as British and then he fought this boy who maybe called him Jamaican and said that he's black like him then he goes home and tells his dad and remember contextually by the way Raymond Antrobus's dad is black Jamaican okay so he goes home and tells his dad that he hates them I hate them Jamaicans and here he writes in phonetic spelling and of course them is a part of patois which is spoken in Jamaica and this phonetic spelling is somewhat humorous because he's rejecting his Jamaican roots while speaking in patois which is obviously part of a Jamaican dialect then he states I'm British and here this declarative sentence shows his wish at one point to only embrace just his white British side of him however his dad laughs it off and the joviality of his father instantly presented by this verb laughing depicts his dad who's Jamaican as one figure who understand that what the speaker is grappling with he understands how complicated it can be to really grapple with these two sides of yourself when you are mixed race then the dad says you can't love sugar and hate your sweetness so hey there's oxymoron which shows the speaker is resting with identity being neither British nor Jamaican but both instantaneously and his dad is saying you can't love one side and hate the other it's almost like you're hating yourself but also loving yourself which is impossible then he states the dad to show him and to make him maybe happy to be Jamaican takes him to Jamaica passport British and these nouns again so the juxtaposition of him going to Jamaica with a British passport shows he can't escape this dual identity it's even fitted into his passport he's mixed race completely thoroughly furthermore when he gets Jamaica his cousins called him jar English okay so this is a colloquialism this colloquial nickname mixes both his Jamaican and English heritage again his mixed heritage is something he can't escape furthermore the reference to English and British in this couplet okay in this verse is interesting because this rhyming couplet reveals his privilege when he goes to Jamaica when he goes to Jamaica his cousins say oh you're mixed race but also you're English which makes you even more cool and the following verse he reflects plantation lineage war service now this listing here shows the great extent to which Jamaicans have sacrificed and served their mother country okay so they worked in the plantations as slaves thus enriching Britain but also when there was war they worked as servicemen and were never even thanked as servicemen and he's reflecting on all these sacrifices the black side of him has made to Britain then he wonders how do I serve Jamaica British and at the end of service on Jean Mont which shows he's really struggling to reconcile what he sees as a very complicated heritage that he has living within him and then he refers to Jamaican British and again this rhetorical question shows he's starting to accept his mixed race heritage even if accepting both his Jamaican and British side is really painful and he states we're knowing how to war is Jamaican British so the war in this sense of course it refers to how historically there's been a lot of conflict between black Jamaicans and white British people but also it symbolizes the internal war within him between his two identities he finds it difficult to reconcile the two that's it when it comes to understanding this poem I hope you found the explanation of context as well as the analysis of this poem useful and thank you so much for listening