Mistaken Identity: They trace their roots to Jamaica, Trinidad, Nigeria, Somalia. So, why do so many black Canadian youth identify with a particular U.S. black experience — the condition reflected in pop cultural portrayals of poverty, violence and isolation?

Even in our schools, there seems to be an over-emphasis on African American culture and history.

"When we learned about Canadian history, we didn't learn so much about black people in Canadian history," says 22-year-old Taysea Hall, a fourth-year psychology student at York University who has lived in Brampton since moving from Jamaica when she was 7.

"But as part of black history, we learned about Marcus Garvey, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. You would have to dig pretty deep on your own to learn about black Canadian history."

Hall says she's taken it upon herself to cultivate an identity as a black Canadian of Caribbean descent who grew up in a Toronto suburb. The same can't be said of her 19-year-old brother.

"I'll look at him and his friends who all want to be gangsters and ghetto, because that's what they see coming out of the U.S. But I'm, like, `You live in Brampton, you go to college, your parents still take care of you in their house.'

"There are no ghettos in Brampton, even the worst parts of Brampton, or Jane and Finch," which she says has become the stereotype of a "bad area."

"They're not even close to what you find in parts of Harlem or South Central L.A. or a lot of urban American ghetto areas, because the conditions here and the history here has very little to do with the States."

Sitting in a franchise gourmet coffee shop in one of Brampton's many neighbourhoods that are heavily populated by blacks, the contrast she highlights seems right on the mark.

"But a lot of young people here have taken on and embraced that identity. It's all they see in the media, that's what the American clothes they buy represent, what the hip-hop songs are about. But if you add everything up, it doesn't make sense. Canadian youth don't have the same history, the conditions in the U.S. are not the same, so you wonder why they identify with it so strongly here.

"The only thing they have in common is they're black."

According to Statistics Canada, most blacks in the Toronto area have no historical ties to the United States. Data from the 2001 census show almost 90 per cent of the 310,000 people in Toronto who call themselves black are from the Caribbean or Africa.

That's the case in Rexdale, about 10 kilometres east of Brampton, where 15-year-old Femi Shoga sits with some of his friends eating at a food court in the Albion Mall.

The North Albion Collegiate Grade 10 student and her friends embody the African American identity Hall says so many youth in Toronto embrace.

"I don't really know about my Nigerian history," says Shoga, whose father moved to Toronto from Nigeria. "I know what's going on in the States, though: Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King. We learn about them in school."

"We basically learn about American black history during Black History Month," says 16-year-old Maurice Christian, Shoga's friend and classmate. "We don't even know about Jamaican history, where a lot of us are from.

"When I was in Grade 8 and 9, we learned a little bit about black Canadian history, but most of it was about America."

"It's not our teachers' fault," Shoga says. "Our parents should be teaching us. But you never hear about nothing good in Nigeria."

Sixteen-year-old Jordan Williams compares the situation to another kind of stereotyping — the simplistic way Americans look at Canada.

"The idea most people have of black people here, from what they see mostly from the U.S., is the same as the idea that Canada is all about beer and beavers. That's the only thing people are shown, so they believe it."

"Yeah," adds Tyrone Taiwo, who goes by the nickname Lil' Spot. "It's like all Canadians live in igloos and stuff."

But is the association of black youth in Toronto with U.S.-style hip-hop culture really that far off the mark?

Lil' Spot, who is half-Jamaican, half-Nigerian, takes a long pause. Finally, he says: "Some people listen to rap lyrics and videos and want to be like that..."

"...shooting and killing," Williams interrupts.

"...and girls and drugs and ghetto and bitches and hos," adds Lil' Spot. "Everybody's into it."

It's those negative stereotypes that can affect the way blacks are sometimes perceived by non-blacks in Toronto. Living in Rexdale, which has a large mix of black and South Asian Canadians, these teens say they have to cope with racism.

"Indians get a lot of their misperceptions of us from the American media," Shoga says. "They hate us. If I see 20 Indian guys walking, I better run or fight them. Chinese people and even white people probably think the same thing because of what they see in the American media, even the ones who try to act gangster."

To change those misperceptions, the students say more emphasis on Canadian black history and culture would help. But when asked if they could name a prominent black Canadian, the best they can do is Dwight Drummond, the City TV reporter who came to their school the previous week to speak about Black History Month.

Inside North Albion Collegiate, six students gather to talk about the influence of African American history and culture on black youth in Toronto.

"There are a lot of people in this area who are actually from Nigeria or Ethiopia or Somalia," says Toyin Dada, a 16-year-old Grade 12 student who immigrated from Nigeria. "But you wouldn't know it because they try to act American or, sometimes, Jamaican.

"Even the announcements during Black History Month, the information was about African Americans — Martin Luther King, Colin Powell. It's not that they haven't made a big difference, but a lot of us would like to learn about people like Nelson Mandela."

Eighteen-year-old Phillip Jackson, a Grade 12 student whose family is from Jamaica, offers a simple explanation to Dada.

"You're being `conformed.' They say that doesn't happen in Canada, but you learn through the media about great American people, not Canadians, and you learn about American black identity. No other identity is shown anywhere."

His classmate, 18-year-old Tabia Morant, says significant elements of black Canadian history have been completely overshadowed by the emphasis on African American culture.

"Information about the Underground Railroad has been drowned out. That was how a lot of black people ended up in Nova Scotia and Ontario. It's one of the earliest parts of black history in Canada."

The students also agree that some of the uglier parts of Canadian history should be openly taught, such as the segregated schools that existed in Nova Scotia and Alberta as well as other parts of the country.

"When it comes to Nigerian history, I learned about our independence and the people who helped free Nigeria from Britain through my father," Dada says.

"I don't understand why black history in Toronto shouldn't focus on the stories that are relevant to the people here."

When asked about the influence of popular culture and the media, 15-year-old Fatma Yasin says many young people in Toronto's Somali community adopt an African American identity, and often a Jamaican identity, in order to gain acceptance with other black youth.

"They listen to a lot of hip-hop. I can see some of them just trying to fit in, leaving their Somali roots behind. I listen to African and American music."

For Dada, American rappers such as 50 Cent and Ja Rule, who sings the current hit "New York, New York" (laced with violent lyrics and featuring Fat Joe and Jadakiss) just lend to the negative image that she and her peers are left to deal with.

"I'm, like, enough from New York about New York. People think all black people in Toronto are ghetto.

"Even in this school — we were cooking last week for the Afro-Caribbean social and these girls walked by and an Indian girl said it smelled like `ghetto.'"

The room erupts.

"I know what they're trying to say," Jackson says. "They always relate `ghetto' to black people. That's the link because that's what they see from the U.S. and from the gangster music and the movies."

"Yeah, they get the ghetto impression from America," adds Morant.

Jamal Senior, a 15-year-old Grade 10 student with an Egyptian and Jamaican background, offers the final comment.

"We have to do something to create our own identity and to remember our own history. Otherwise, pretty soon, it will be too late."