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West Indians are a broad ethnic/regional group who includes a number of different nations and people who are multilingual, religiously diverse and have heritages that span the globe.
Not seeing the reason to make the comparison with African-Americans, who are one ethnic group within one nation.
The population of the Bahamas is 95 percent black, so my wife was a minority in that society. She grew up with many of the black Bahamians who now run that country. She is on a first name basis with the Prime Minister, and other Judges and Members of Parliament. Its a small country, only 330 thousand people in total.
That's the other side of the coin. African Americans are much more likely to talk about Africa, Africans, and everything that has to do with that. Yet, AA's are probably the least Africanized people of African descent. Maybe Canadians of African descent are equally or less Africanized than African Americans. All other African descended peoples whether its in Spanish America, Portuguese America, the West Indies or where ever; the African cultural influence is much stronger and much purer.
I think this had much to do with which Europeans Africans were enslaved under and what the slave master's version of Christanity was and also to the size of the black population to that of the white population.
Basically Africans enslaved under Spanish,Portugues and French slave masters were able to keep many African customs intact because those Europeans were less hostile to their slave's African culture in comparison to the British slave masters of the U.S. Also by the Spanish,Portuguese and French slave masters being catholic the Africans had saints to use to disquise their African deities behind. Slaves in protestant countries couldn't do this as much.
What I'm saying can explain why New Orleans had a tradition of vodu because of the French,Spanish and catholic heritages there.
I also think population size plays a part. Even though english speaking caribbean blacks were enslaved under the protestant British they were larger in numbers than the whites so they weren't as dominated by a white population and culture like U.S blacks were. So this can explain why caribbean blacks in english speaking countries are more "African" compared to U.S blacks.
I was born and raised in the Bahamas. My father is black and my mother is white and her grandfather was Roland Symonette, a politician in the Bahamas. So I can give you insight on the Bahamas. First off, the Bahamas has VERY low crime everywhere except Nassau, which is a result of Haitian, Dominican and Jamaican illegals who brig their terrible habits from Ocho Rios and Cap Haitien with them. Everyone knows that Haiti has terrible deforestation, and now the Haitians are bringing this habit with them to Nassau and Inagua!
Next, everywhere in Nassau is okay except for two neighborhoods called Montell Heights and the Grove, which are where the majority of Dominican, Jamaican and Haitians live. These are where the highest crime rates are. Look at the stats! This isn't inflammatory, these are the basic facts.
Everywhere else in Nassau is excellent, especially the neighborhood I grew up in called Cable Beach. If any of you ever visit Nassau, I highly urge you to go to a restaurant called Bamboo Shack, which has the greatest cracked conch and chicken snacks of all time. Also, go out to the docks and get some conch salad with extra pepper. And get some Goombay Punch. These are life-changers!
Oh yeah, and reace relations in the Bahamas are great.
This last post about the Bahamas by WRolle got me interested in researching this and found a few interesting information, some of which I quote. I bring them here because they show a slightly different perspective from the one that has been shown here on City-Data.
I'm not Bahamian nor am I well acquainted with that country, so I can't really say if these quotes are much more accurate than what has already been said here or if its vice versa or a mixture of the two.
"The PLP is a racist government. In everything they say and do they make it clear that the whites … both Bahamian and foreign…in these islands have no rights. They are merely tolerated by the government," was the opening paragraph of Sir Etienne's editorial of June 26, 1982.
He said the racist attitudes of the government had "driven tourists and white investors to other places, such as the Cayman islands, which are booming with investment".
He said that because of Mr Adderley's background one would have expected "some measure of understanding of the fact that the Bahamas is entirely dependent on white tourists and white investors to survive."
Eventually tired of the insults, tired of being sidelined and told their expertise was not needed; tired of only being acknowledged when someone wanted to get their hands into their pockets for a hand-out, many white Bahamians melted into the shadows, minded their own affairs and built their businesses.
And now, almost 40 years later their absence is being felt. And a PLP senator has had the nerve to ask white Bahamians to explain why they have "for so long" neglected to involve themselves in events of national importance. White Bahamians' Absence Felt - Bahamas News Archive Commentary
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The spectre of racism continues to linger in the Bahamas today, complemented by the emergence of a new, black oligarchy and classism that further stratifies the nation along economic/class lines.
Today, which marks the date of the emancipation of the slaves and my 24th birthday, comes amidst a time when some persons, however subtly, continue to have an epidermal obsession, judging people on the hue of their skin (whether black or white) rather than adhering to Martin Luther King’s magnanimous urging to assess a person based on the content of their character. Racism in The Bahamas - WeblogBahamas.com
This last post about the Bahamas by WRolle got me interested in researching this and found a few interesting information, some of which I quote. I bring them here because they show a slightly different perspective from the one that has been shown here on City-Data.
I'm not Bahamian nor am I well acquainted with that country, so I can't really say if these quotes are much more accurate than what has already been said here or if its vice versa or a mixture of the two.
"The PLP is a racist government. In everything they say and do they make it clear that the whites … both Bahamian and foreign…in these islands have no rights. They are merely tolerated by the government," was the opening paragraph of Sir Etienne's editorial of June 26, 1982.
He said the racist attitudes of the government had "driven tourists and white investors to other places, such as the Cayman islands, which are booming with investment".
He said that because of Mr Adderley's background one would have expected "some measure of understanding of the fact that the Bahamas is entirely dependent on white tourists and white investors to survive."
Eventually tired of the insults, tired of being sidelined and told their expertise was not needed; tired of only being acknowledged when someone wanted to get their hands into their pockets for a hand-out, many white Bahamians melted into the shadows, minded their own affairs and built their businesses.
And now, almost 40 years later their absence is being felt. And a PLP senator has had the nerve to ask white Bahamians to explain why they have "for so long" neglected to involve themselves in events of national importance. White Bahamians' Absence Felt - Bahamas News Archive Commentary
----------------------------
The spectre of racism continues to linger in the Bahamas today, complemented by the emergence of a new, black oligarchy and classism that further stratifies the nation along economic/class lines.
Today, which marks the date of the emancipation of the slaves and my 24th birthday, comes amidst a time when some persons, however subtly, continue to have an epidermal obsession, judging people on the hue of their skin (whether black or white) rather than adhering to Martin Luther King’s magnanimous urging to assess a person based on the content of their character. Racism in The Bahamas - WeblogBahamas.com
You don't understand, in the Bahamas it is VERY well known that the PLP reeks of corruption. Lynden Pindling, the "national hero" cut deals with Carlos Lehder and Pablo Escobar for drug transport rits of Norman's Cay. My family is DIEHARD FNM.
I think the effects of segregation is mostly responsible for the African American (and American in general) fixation with race above all other things.
Even though slavery is used as the excuse, the reality is that slavery existed pretty much everywhere in this hemisphere and only in the USA did segregation became a huge deal. This explains the marked difference not just between African Americans and West Indians, but with any other African descended peoples in this hemisphere.
There's no "excuse." It wasn't that long ago that black people were being lynched from trees. There was Klan riding around in Barbados or Jamaica.
it's funny i was just talking about this today...it's very hard to even define "African-American" at this point. Reason being in places like NYC there are tons of ex pats from the islands who have moved there but have lived in new york for multiple generations. There are SO many black new yorkers whos descendants come from the carribean, you wouldn't even realize by just talking to them because they got the new york accent.
For example, so many rappers who we all consider "African-American" are of carribbean descent, like Biggie Smalls, Busta Rhymes, KRS one, Funkmaster Flash, Doug e fresh, Pete Rock, Q tip and Phife Dawg from tribe called quest, Dipset, some members of Wu Tang. And that's just a few rappers, forget any other famous black folks from New York, many are also at least partially of West Indian descent.
So with current generations, especially in places like NY/NJ or South Florida with a long history of carribean migration, you cant really differentiate between the two since it's so mixed now.
Having said that, I lived in Chicago on the southside and it seemed like most, if not all African Americans came from places like Mississippi, and they are for real rooted from the deep south. You can hear it in the accents (even though cats from the Chi would never think they sound kinda southern, but they do), and generally speaking I'd say the Midwest black folks are a lot more similar to the southern black folks than ones from new york, like the style of clothing, big body cars, etc. And I think a lot of it has to with the fact that most AAs in the midwest are from the Deep South as opposed to the islands.
It is not hard to define African American. NYC, and those few places you mentioned are the exception, The vast majority of black communities are american with origins in the south.
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