Ethnic and national identities of 11-16-year-old British Africans and Caribbeans were examined. Adolescents ranked ethnicity as more important than age, gender or nationality, stereotyped Caribbeans/Africans more positively than British and derived more pride from ethnicity than nationality. England was the least popular answer to 'where are you from', but more Caribbeans versus Africans chose this category and older Caribbeans described themselves as more 'British' than older Africans.
The emergence of a modeling industry in Jamaica that valorizes idiosyncratic style has opened up a space in which black images of beauty take center stage. Caribbean Fashion Week is the major platform for displaying internationally acclaimed Jamaican models. Showcasing a high percentage of decidedly black male and female models wearing spectacular designer clothes, Caribbean Fashion Week enables multiple readings of the body as cultural text. The permissive modeling aesthetic engenders capricious images of beauty that contest the very conception of the 'model' as a mold into which a singular figure of beauty is impressed.