Dios en Carne: Puerto Rican Rastas Choosing Black / Refusing White

Abstract

In this paper I argue that, due to the influence of Rastafari culture and beliefs, my interlocutors, members of the Rastafari community in Puerto Rico, are selecting a Black racialized identity for themselves—even though they have the social privilege not to do so. In doing so, they are critiquing how Blackness and Black identity formation is understood in Puerto Rico. By refusing said privilege and choosing what is largely understood to be a marginalized identity, they are defying Puerto Rican racial constructions as well as Eurocentric racial hierarchies. They present instead a number of counternarratives: (1) they acknowledge the reality and gravity of racism in Puerto Rico, (2) they favor and support a standard of beauty that is Afrocentric as opposed to the typical Eurocentric standard prevalent in Puerto Rico, and (3) they consider a Black/African identification to be a practice in empowerment and not suppression.