Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yet Jews like Chinese in Caribbean are considered very unusual and for many Americans they find it very strange white caribbeans to exist is just as strange as there are Black Russians.
Well prior to Independence there were more Whites living in Trinidad. Most of them fled due to the violence there that rose up on that island. However there are an long established middle eastern community there too esp from Syria and Lebanon and they would be classified as white in the US census. There are also an Chinese community yet Trinidad is unique for that region as at least half of the people have heritage from the Indian subcontinent. Just as people out there think its so weird whites can be from the Carribbean, they would think the same for someone of East Indian heritage.
I didn't realize that there was a significant Indian population Caribbean until a woman I worked with married an Indian from Trinidad. She was born in India herself and came to the use as a young adult. Her husband was born and raised in Trinidad, but his parents are from India, and he went to college in the US and then started working here. He had never been to India until they went there to get married.
Now I know another Indian woman who was born in Guyana. Apparently there's a significant Indian population there, too.
well not many people know Napoléon wife is from the Caribbean. Her name was princess Josphine. She was born in an aristocratic family in the French territory of Martinique.
Places like Martinique are still French territoy. Also Jamaica is still an British commonwealth country just like Bahamas, Barbados, Virgin Islands and an few other territories. Of course they still an small but important minority there. If these islands gained complete independence more whites would leave there.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,606 posts, read 55,756,157 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by thewitchisback
This is a sidenote of sorts.
I think in the Caribbean the culture is comprised of all the people who live there blended together into one main culture. As a result you will find everyone being culturally quite similar despite race. This produces some interesting results as some aspects of each group's ancestors is lost while some are contributed towards the overall mainstream Caribbean cultures. Chinese Trinidadians for example cannot use chopsticks, non Chinese Jamaicans can cook Chinese food quite well, non Indian Trinidadians can easily tell the difference between a Hindu or Muslim last name, Carnival which stems from European and West African influences is popular with most Caribbean people.
Unlike the US where ,for example, a white person can have a "cultural experience" by going over to let's say a Chinese friend's house ("What am I eating? Taro?? How do you spell that? Is it like a potato? ") the differences are much less strongly defined in the Caribbean. I'm not sure why. I think maybe the small size of the islands forced people to interact more closely and thus form a blended composite culture.
A really good example of all I said above is with the taro. It is extremely common and is cooked in the home by all Caribbean people. It was introduced to the region by Chinese immigrants (brought to replace African slave labour) in the early 1800s and was called by the ruling French at the time "de la Chine" (meaning from China). The name has since been corrupted over the years to dasheen but its popularity remains strong. And nobody thinks of it as Chinese food anymore (or probably even knows its origin), just Caribbean.
I discovered taro about a year ago when I tried taro bubble tea. I'm not sure if you have bubble tea there, but it's like cold brewed black tea with various flavours, sometimes with milk (usually powdered) with tapioca 'pearls' or 'bubbles' at the bottom also known as 'sago'. It's become very popular here and not just among Asians. I was attracted to the purple colour and decided to try it and really got into it. It has a 'mealy', 'starchy' taste and isn't too sweet. It's not savoury though.
I had the pleasure of trying taro ice cream in Vietnam and Thailand, also taro candy which my fellow American tourists also seemed to love. As yet I've never actually had taro itself, or even seen a taro plant. I always assumed it was from Melanesia or perhaps Africa, maybe imported to South East Asia recently, similar to yam. Yam is something common to both Asian, Pacific Island and African cultures.
Dasheen (Taro), was introduced to the Caribbean way before the Chinese immigrants. It's believe to been introduced by the African slaves, Taro is also a staple in West African cooking.
I discovered taro about a year ago when I tried taro bubble tea. I'm not sure if you have bubble tea there, but it's like cold brewed black tea with various flavours, sometimes with milk (usually powdered) with tapioca 'pearls' or 'bubbles' at the bottom also known as 'sago'. It's become very popular here and not just among Asians. I was attracted to the purple colour and decided to try it and really got into it. It has a 'mealy', 'starchy' taste and isn't too sweet. It's not savoury though.
I had the pleasure of trying taro ice cream in Vietnam and Thailand, also taro candy which my fellow American tourists also seemed to love. As yet I've never actually had taro itself, or even seen a taro plant. I always assumed it was from Melanesia or perhaps Africa, maybe imported to South East Asia recently, similar to yam. Yam is something common to both Asian, Pacific Island and African cultures.
Guadeloupe island is about 9% white.
Martinique is about 5% white.
Martinique and Guadalupe are French overseas departments (direct integral parts of the French Republic similar to a state in the US).
The Dutch Caribbean (Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, Saba, St. Martin, etc) also has a large White population ... again these islands remain under Dutch control and are not independent although they are self governing to a degree.
The remaining British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean (BVI, Caymans, Turks & Caicos, Anguilla, Monteserrat, etc) tend to have smaller White populations than the French and Dutch islands. Although not in the Caribbean per se, Bermuda is about 40% White, again though it is a British Overseas Territory.
I think the novelty factor is not so much that there are some White people from these islands, but that they speak patois.
I went to a High School with about 3,000 students, about 70% American Black and 10% Black Jamaicans (immigrant kids, thick accents), 20% Hispanic and other.
One day we got a new student, a Black British-Jamaican who looked like everyone else but spoke with a proper middle-class British accent. the poor guy couldn't say a damn thing without riotous laughter because of the unexpected accent.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
