Identity

Identity is the foundation of the USBA ecosystem. For Foundational Black Americans, identity is not a cultural label, a personal preference, or a form of self-identification. 

It is a lineage, shaped by a specific history, specific harms, and a distinct cultural tradition created on American soil.

USBA 2025 begins with identity because every form of restoration requires clearly defining the harmed group. 

Identity is the focus of Phase I. 

Foundational Black Americans are:

• direct descendants of ancestors who were subjected to U.S. chattel slavery before 1865
• born in the United States and shaped by its laws, policies, and institutions 
• carriers of a cultural tradition shaped by survival and resistance on American soil
• inheritors of lineage-specific structural harms across generations 

FBA lineage is fixed, historical, and non-transferable. 

It is not interchangeable with Black, African American, minority, POC, or any pan-diasporic labels. 

For FBAs, identity is often blurred or absorbed into broad racial categories that hide lineage-specific harms. 

Misclassification leads to:

• inaccurate research and health data
• weakened reparative justice claims
• cultural dilution
• narrative confusion
• loss of political and social clarity

Identity restores accuracy in how we understand ourselves and how systems must account for harm. 

Within the ISDH framework, FBA identity explains how our exposure to harm has been shaped by enslavement, racial classification, displacement, and erasure. 

This affects our:

• access to resources
• patterns of stress and mistrust
• community stability
• health outcomes
• opportunities across generations

Identity explains why conditions exist and determines the circumstances a population must navigate over time. 

FBA identity was shaped within a continuous pattern of policy and structural exposure, not by isolated moments. 

These forces determined where FBAs could live, how we were classified, and what opportunities were available across generations.

Timeline

1619 — Lineage origin under slavery
1800s — Resistance, mutual aid, and early terror
1865 — Emancipation without repair
1865–1900 — Black Codes, convict leasing, and targeted violence
1900–1960s — Jim Crow restrictions on health, wealth, and mobility
1915–1970 — Great Migration and nationalized discrimination
1930s–1970s — Redlining, highway construction, and urban renewal
1970s–2000s — Mass incarceration and economic extraction
2000s–Present — Displacement, closures, environmental injustice

These patterns explain the conditions created by structural harm that FBAs inherited and continue to navigate. 

Reparative justice requires a clearly defined harmed group. 

Identity clarity ensures:

• correct lineage identification
• proper recognition of harm
• accurate claims for repair
• protection against dilution or redirection of resources

Without identity clarity, repair becomes unstable or vulnerable to redefinition. Identity anchors restoration. 

Identity provides the starting point for the entire USBA ecosystem.  

It provides:

• lineage definition
• historical grounding
• the logic for reparative justice
• explanation of misclassification
• connection between identity and structural conditions

Identity is not the end. It is the beginning.

Within the USBA ecosystem, agency begins with identity. Before restoration, policy, or collective action, identity must be used with clarity and consistency in everyday life.

In practice, this means:

• using accurate lineage language
• prioritizing precision over urgency
• reinforcing shared standards without performance
• correcting misclassification where it appears
• disengaging when clarity is not respected  
   

The FBA Agency Guide in the Orientation Guides section provides additional guidance on applying identity clarity with consistency.