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West Indians normally live among their kind, as do Africans and African Americans. You'll get the occasional cross overs into other communities, such as myself. My family is from Antigua and Barbuda and settled in Bedstuy back in the 80's. I lived around a lot of African Americans, with the trickle of Caribbean families. I would say we blend well, but I've experienced some bias for being from the west indies growing up in Bedstuy. Only name calling i dealt with was being called "Curry Goat"
They remain pretty distinct. There is a reason why people of Caribbean descent tend to form Caribbean communities if their numbers support it. And they tend to elect other Caribbean-Americans as their representatives, not African Americans, if their numbers allow them to do so.
When my paternal great grandparents immigrated to the States from the British West Indies (Antigua) around 1920, they settled in Harlem originally. But as their numbers started to grow and fertile ground opened in parts of Brooklyn, etc., they moved to Crown Heights along with many others like them.
But this isn't to say that African Americans and Caribbean Americans don't get along.
Note, I don't call myself Caribbean American as it's not the culture that I was raised in. My mother's family is African American and my father's mother--while proud of her Caribbean roots--did not marry into the Caribbean community.
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