Do First and Second Generation West Indians Assimilate into the AA Community? (New York: high school, university)
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Where it "came from" ? protest against shoving people into one space given skin color.
Reassertion of the presence of differences between people who "look" alike to some.
And I need to back out because I must pack everyone for a trip.
Funny and sad how hostile people are to different ideas, and I do not mean the crazy people - easy just to ignore them.
But there are too many trolls and crazies here now.
No honey, not just "now". They've BEEN on this forum.
Ok. I got an idea now, but in my family and the vast majority of WI families I know in the US (at least in NYC, NJ and Florida), we tend to settle into black neighborhoods already established by AAs so it makes sense that BajanYankee would ask about these two groups.
Not our experience.
I should say I would use my SOs family as the readiest example, most recently West Indian - Barbados.
Grandfather was a doctor, did not really assimilate in either camp, knew other doctors and lawyers of different races. They did stick to their own culture family-wise and were not thrilled with an AA lacking that heritage. [Edit for clarity - that was me.]
That said, my SO works in business, high enough up, lots of shoving him into enclaves with "like" people. Which seems to be determined by skin color.
Last edited by Harlem resident; 10-10-2013 at 08:14 PM..
Back to the issue of whether Caribbean immigrants assimilate into the AA community, yes. If not outright assimilation there is certainly plenty of overlap. Any area in the metro NYC area that has plenty of Blacks will have Blacks from a variety of countries, as Dominicans, Haitians, Bajans, Trinidadians, Jamaicans, Panamanians, all seem to like to settle in neighborhoods that previously have Black people in them.
Civil service jobs, which supply a good portion of the city's working to middle class, have many Blacks working in them and not just African Americans. Again, you'll have Caribbeans, Africans, and Black Hispanics there as well.
So if people live in the same neighborhoods, work together, go to the same schools, that certainly implies assimilation.
This is so sad, but hey, do whatchu gotta do to get that money.
It bothered me when beyonce kept harping on her "creole" background in every interview to appear more "exotic". She has this makeup revlon commercial where they list three or four different racial backgrounds. All i could do was roll my eyes.
Jlo does the same commercial, but all she says is that she's "100 puerto rican" which means absolutely nothing. Why isn't her racial makeup included?
Even poor naomi campbell, one of the baddest models to ever walk the catwalk tried to claim she had a "chinese" grandmother. Lolol!! :d
I just joined the forum but I've been reading for a while now. I am a first gen born from Jamaican parents in the Bronx. I grew up around Jamaicans, family and neighborhood. But one of my best friends is AA. From my experience I do not believe i assimilated well with African American culture, but I assimilated well with urban youth culture. (not sure if that makes sense but please bare with me). The urban youth culture for example the slang we speak, the way we dress is similar across all cultures in the area. Blacks and Latino first gen second gen are in this culture. When I am with my friends, which is a big mix of white, black, and latino first gens, we all are of that single culture that we picked up from living in the Bronx. But when we go home, it all changes. We are back in the culture of our heritage. When I am with my AA friend's family, its odd for me, they are different from my family and vice versa. Love them to death, but I never felt like blended well with African Americans.
I could just be ignorant or maybe since I did grow up around majority west Indians my experience cannot apply to what most people feel.
However I do agree with an earlier statement that you cannot tell us apart aside from some reggae music coming from my headphones, the Jamaican Flag in my car or coming to my house and hearing the patios spoken by my family.
Again, just my opinion and experience, I mean no harm by anything I said.
I just joined the forum but I've been reading for a while now. I am a first gen born from Jamaican parents in the Bronx. I grew up around Jamaicans, family and neighborhood. But one of my best friends is AA. From my experience I do not believe i assimilated well with African American culture, but I assimilated well with urban youth culture. (not sure if that makes sense but please bare with me). The urban youth culture for example the slang we speak, the way we dress is similar across all cultures in the area. Blacks and Latino first gen second gen are in this culture. When I am with my friends, which is a big mix of white, black, and latino first gens, we all are of that single culture that we picked up from living in the Bronx. But when we go home, it all changes. We are back in the culture of our heritage. When I am with my AA friend's family, its odd for me, they are different from my family and vice versa. Love them to death, but I never felt like blended well with African Americans.
I could just be ignorant or maybe since I did grow up around majority west Indians my experience cannot apply to what most people feel.
However I do agree with an earlier statement that you cannot tell us apart aside from some reggae music coming from my headphones, the Jamaican Flag in my car or coming to my house and hearing the patios spoken by my family.
Again, just my opinion and experience, I mean no harm by anything I said.
Don't be intimidated by some of the overly sensitive types here, speak your mind bruh. Just as long as you do it respectfully of course
I just joined the forum but I've been reading for a while now. I am a first gen born from Jamaican parents in the Bronx. I grew up around Jamaicans, family and neighborhood. But one of my best friends is AA. From my experience I do not believe i assimilated well with African American culture, but I assimilated well with urban youth culture. (not sure if that makes sense but please bare with me). The urban youth culture for example the slang we speak, the way we dress is similar across all cultures in the area. Blacks and Latino first gen second gen are in this culture. When I am with my friends, which is a big mix of white, black, and latino first gens, we all are of that single culture that we picked up from living in the Bronx. But when we go home, it all changes. We are back in the culture of our heritage. When I am with my AA friend's family, its odd for me, they are different from my family and vice versa. Love them to death, but I never felt like blended well with African Americans.
I could just be ignorant or maybe since I did grow up around majority west Indians my experience cannot apply to what most people feel.
However I do agree with an earlier statement that you cannot tell us apart aside from some reggae music coming from my headphones, the Jamaican Flag in my car or coming to my house and hearing the patios spoken by my family.
Again, just my opinion and experience, I mean no harm by anything I said.
I completely understand what you're saying. Sometimes when I hang out with my AA friend's family, I can't help but notice the stark differences in how families interact within each other. I love hanging out with them and they, usually, have me laughing, but there are some situations where I just look and like "Yo...this would NEVER be tolerated in a Caribbean family". Of course, I don't mean it in a condescending way, just amazed at some of the differences.
Choice three: They assimilate into those cultural groups that include people with whom they have the most in common professionally and, usually, economically.
Do I think West Indians assimilate into ghetto communities because they have a similar skin color ?
No. I have not seen this.
That's not really a "choice three."
Yes, a Jamaican could assimilate into black "ghetto" culture. Or a Jamaican could attend Howard and assimilate into the black upper middle class. Either way, it's assimilation into the larger Black American community.
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Leaning towards No for a first Gen
