'We were not Black': How Black identity shifts over time for some young adults

Black History Month events are planned across the city and that identity — being Black — is something that can shift over time, and between generations.

Young adults with the non-profit Immigrant Outreach Society organized a fashion show to kick off Black History Month last weekend. Many of them were from local East African communities.

Some said they only recently started to embrace being Black, leaning into that identity as a point of pride and community.

Here are three organizers and participants who shared what Black History Month means to them. 

When Dawit Mussie was growing up, he listened to pop music, played hockey and cut his hair short to blend in. 

"I didn't even acknowledge the fact I was Black," said Mussie. "The less you thought about your differences, the easier things were. But I think getting older and through experience and work and it's become very clear to me that I am Black and that's not something I hide any more."

Mussie is a junior high teacher now, and sees students today living into a Black identity in a very different way than he did as a child.

"On February 1st, as soon as I walk in the door, they're like 'Hey, you know what date it is?'"

"I think that has to do with media and hip-hop being such a big influence. No matter with their cultural background, the fact that their skin is not white, that draws them in."

But the older generation is changing, too, he said.

"Historically with our parents, maybe Black has been seen as like a word that's putting us down almost like that with the N-word. But now, Black shows strength and it shows resilience."

"With my own parents, I see it changing. I don't know if the words 'We are Black' ever came out of their mouths when we were younger.… We were Ethiopian, we were Habesha, we were Eritrean. We were not Black.

"But I think moving here and not having as big of an Ethiopian-Eritrean community around us, I think we were drawn to Nigerian people, and drawn to Tanzanian and Kenyan. We just kind of came together."

Bethel Afework says Black History Month doesn't feel very connected to her family's story of immigration from Ethiopia. As a cultural point of contact, she values community-specific events such as the September New Year's celebrations more.