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Half my family is from jamaica and the other half is from North Philly(but trace roots back to the Carolinas). So I understand both sides. US native blacks tend to be more welcoming and friendly, and Islanders tend to have more pride and put more stock in education and being more upwardly mobile(The females anyway), but seem colder and more provincial. American blacks also seem to have more quality of life issues.
Half my family is from jamaica and the other half is from North Philly(but trace roots back to the Carolinas). So I understand both sides. US native blacks tend to be more welcoming and friendly, and Islanders tend to have more pride and put more stock in education and being more upwardly mobile(The females anyway), but seem colder and more provincial. American blacks also seem to have more quality of life issues.
You haven't seen the West Indies neighborhoods in Miami have you? Are you seriously saying they are more "upwardly mobile" and such?
A good friend of mine married a Haitian girl and I spent a lot of time around her family in the lead up into the wedding....that comment made just about spit out my water. There is a BIG difference between A-A culture and Haitian culture. I mean, that's like asking whats the difference between an Englishman and Frenchman.
But nothing mean spirited though. I love Haitians and they know how cook some good ass food.
Yeah, we're aight. I just got done eating some white rice.
I don't have to read up on it because I'm living it right now. Do you know how many black kids made fun of the way my mother and grandmother talk? My friends used to always say they didn't want to eat any of our Jamaican cooking, even though Barbados and Jamaica are completely different places. All they knew was that we, or at least my mother, was different and not one of them. It's no different in NYC. I know this because I have tons of family there. It's not even possible to be West Indian without having family in NYC, London or Toronto.
black americans make fun of how other black americans sound/talk regardless of where they come from.
this isn't some unique experience that ppl from other areas of the world have to deal with when coming to america.
also, your friends sound ignorant because where *i'm* from, we grew up on west indian food, period. they sound like they aren't really your friends. friends should accept you. period.
it IS different in nyc. you feel like you have the authority to speak on west indian and african american relations so i now i'm going to say that i have authority to speak on the relationship between west indians and african americans in nyc.
i have fam from various areas. jamaica, dr, belize, etc. for the record not that i think this matters. a black american in ny born and raised regardless of having west indians in their fam or being west indian or not eats west indian food or has eaten it often, chills with west indian ppl daily, interacts with them, etc. its impossible not to in this city.
you think you know about ny but you don't. speak on your own experiences growing up outside of ny and i'll speak on my experiences growing up in ny.
Odd, I was thinking the exact same thing, right before I read your post. Oakland DEFINITELY deserves props(black panthers). It's probably the most diverse of the "black cities".
What about Chicago? Or is it too diverse to still be considered a "black city"?
The first black president is from Chicago. Just throwing that out there.
We Caribbeans do to tend to be more uppity than blacks. It's always an US,and them, as someone else eluded to. BUT there is a reason for that, because in alot of places in the US, we were mistreated by black Americans, picked on, and made fun of, got beaten by black Americans, so on and so forth so they kinda helped create our cliqish mentality. And a reason why the Haitians in South Florida didn't so different from regular blacks, is because alot of Haitian children over the past 3 decades have experienced "Americanization" and thus adopted the culture and attitude of Americans, and MIXED it with the Haitian culture(Look up the word Krenglish). At the end of the day, whether you're Black American, or Caribbean, we're all West African Diaspora and have a VERY similar history of European Slavery, and colonization. Jamaicans, by the Brits, Haitians by the French, American Blacks by the all sorts of Europeans. But one question no one has asked is that: Where does New Orleans stand? I mean if we differentiate between the Black American experience, and the Caribbean experience, than where does NO stand, since it has BOTH. There ancestry is part Caribbean also.
your girl gets her hair done at a shop run by a dominican.
you eat or have eaten beef patties and cocoa bread, regularly.
you grew up listening to celia cruz, tito puente, bob marley, etc. alongside al green, aretha franklin, james brown, etc. because your mom or grandmother played them.
you cop plantains from the bodega
you know what a bodega is and shop at a bodega in the first place
you buy goya products
you know what sazon or sofrito is and how to use it
i could go on and on. who from ny doesn't do everything or near everything on the list regardless of race or ethnicity? especially black americans.
anyway the point wasn't about all that. the point was that nyc has strong black culture historically.
Location: Detroit's eastside, downtown Detroit in near future!
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there is NO point in dividing West Indian and African or African American or Blacks from South/Central America. This is why us a a people will never get anywhere. I don't want to sound extra righteous but this is the truth. Do you know that most blacks in the "new world" have all mated with each other basically. There are many AA people who are of West Indian or African or even South American descent and many other blacks of AA descent. Myself for example. I am African American, that is what I identify with. BUT my grandfather was from Port au Prince Haiti then came to Alabama when he was young. He is actually half haitian and west Indian (well what is now Trinidad and Tabago but was still still "the west indies" when his mother was born there). I have never been raised to separate myself from other blacks.
At the end of the day black people need to look up their family tree before we open our mouths towards each other. There are so many of us who'd be surprised to find a Haitian, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Belizean etc somewhere in our background and vice versa. Since slavery many African Americans have migrated to some of everywhere not just up north but all the way to Africa.
Last edited by detroitlove; 09-03-2010 at 06:37 PM..
your girl gets her hair done at a shop run by a dominican.
you eat or have eaten beef patties and cocoa bread, regularly.
you grew up listening to celia cruz, tito puente, bob marley, etc. alongside al green, aretha franklin, james brown, etc. because your mom or grandmother played them.
you cop plantains from the bodega
you know what a bodega is and shop at a bodega in the first place
you buy goya products
you know what sazon or sofrito is and how to use it
i could go on and on. who from ny doesn't do everything or near everything on the list regardless of race or ethnicity? especially black americans.
anyway the point wasn't about all that. the point was that nyc has strong black culture historically.
I've witnessed most of these things, but from Florida though. Basically FL has everything NYC has in terms of "Caribbean Culture".
there is NO point in dividing West Indian and African or African American or Blacks from South/Central America. This is why us a a people will never get anywhere. I don't want to sound extra righteous but this is the truth. Do you know that most blacks in the "new world" have all mated with each other basically. There are many AA people who are of West Indian or African or even South American descent and many other blacks of AA descent. Myself for example. I am African American, that is what I identify with. BUT my grandfather was from Port au Prince Haiti then came to Alabama when he was young. He is actually half haitian and west Indian (well what is now Trinidad and Tabago but was still still "the west indies" when his mother was born there). I have never been raised to separate myself from other blacks.
At the end of the day black people need to look up their family tree before we open our mouths towards each other. There are so many of us who'd be surprised to find a Haitian, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Belizean etc somewhere in our background and vice versa. Since slavery many African Americans have migrated to some of everywhere not just up north but all the way to Africa.
+1 Great post.
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