Abstract
This article discusses the issue of how people have seen and thought of the race problem in the United States since the end of the slavery era. The change in administration system of America has led to the amendment of immigration laws that have led to increased number of immigrants going to the United States freely without any restrictions. This article shows the contributions of the Caribbean blacks and the African American groups living in the United States. The discussion will be about the challenges faced by these individuals since their move into the country and the opportunities one faces as a minority group when in America. The immigrants have been successful in recent years and the article bases its arguments on research that has been carried out from the 1980s to 2009. It examines and explains the success and failures of the black community based on racial discrimination and segregation by the original inhabitants of the United States of America. The article shows how the number of immigrants have increased due to the success of their family and friends living in America.
Success of African Americans and Blacks of West Indian Background in America
Introduction
Scientists from the social field increasingly believe there is something exceptional about the latest wave of immigrants moving into the U.S. capital. There are many reasons that anticipate challenges of incorporation into the mainstream than those that the Europeans experience when arrived a century earlier. Children are thought to be at danger, and predominant anticipation is that they will face several means towards upward mobility, while some integrated to the underclass must surrender their hopes for economic success (Waters 191).
Mary Waters examined the case of black immigrants from the Caribbean who lived in New York during the 90’s, and she talked to 202 people from the food sector, high school teachers, and young people with links to Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American areas of Brooklyn. The author shows how black Americans take low pay jobs with little future ahead and how they deal with the strong racial stereotypes mostly from their supervisors. Immigrants construct identities that fit in race, national origin, class, and gender. Ethnic identity is based on issues like hard work, low pay, and harsh conditions which fit their situation. As immigrants discover, they get preferential treatment by their superiors who have strong prejudices to black Americans, and they adapt to the same discriminations.
In different events, young people in the United States who were born to immigrant parents develop identities that match their incidents. They are put into three categories. The first group is black Americans who think that their lives are influenced with racial barriers in the United States. These people are mainly youth from poor backgrounds living in the city with little contact with the whites. These young people are aware of their parents who are immigrants, the scorn to black Americans, and the fact that their parents relate black identity with downward mobility. The youth deny that view and think that black young people possess better qualities and enthusiasm to work hard and struggle. The second identity is ethnic. It emphasizes their Caribbean background to distance themselves from black Americans. This group is a middle class or has higher performing students attending unsophisticated schooling programs. This group of youths thinks that the treatment as “Afro-Caribbeans” is better than “blacks”, and they feel that their ethnic principles provide them with a higher chance to be successful. Their identity offers them an explanation of their success. The third group is an ethnic identified youth capable of juggling themselves with possessing of ethnic identity and realization of being black. These are individuals who immigrated as children, and their aspect of being Caribbean and their identity is represented by their speech and the way of dressing (Waters 194).
The writer places her results based on the theory of segmented integration which states that resulting of cultural integration leads to better chances for the following generation (Waters 197). Involuntary minorities do not have a homeland, which can be related to current treatment of them or on which their identities can be based. They do not see discrimination towards them as a temporary barrier to conquer, but they understand that they fit a mocked minority. They relate their situation to their white American peers. The prejudices towards them seem to be permanent and institutionalized. This understanding of their situation lets the involuntary minorities conclude that unity and challenges to the rules of society that is dominant are the only way to make their condition better. The physiological direction that is developed and grows among involuntary minorities is that of opposing the system.
Oppositional identities mean that involuntary minorities define themselves in their core identities based on the opposition to their dominant group. For blacks in America, the meaning of being black is not being white (Waters 205). A strong value is in solidarity and resistance to the rules that seem to be against them. When a member of the group is a collaborator with the dominant group, his or her own identity is under question. Involuntary minorities see the rules of the game as piled in opposition to them and permanent.
Their theory on how to succeed in society, calls for collective attempts and group challenges as the way to conquer barriers set by the white majority. The people who try to assimilate and accomplish themselves as individuals mostly run into challenges when they try to cross cultural barriers acting in a manner considered as falling in the white American cultural frames of reference. This act is threatening their identity as minorities and security and also affects their unity.
Individuals trying to behave like whites are dispirited by their peer crowd and by affective discord. Assimilation is then threatening the involuntary migrant where one must change some cultural practices, such as language and methods of interactions (Waters 209). These individuals are not only different from what they are, but they are considered to behave unethically to their own background and language. The author notes that this disparity between European immigrants and African Americans is faced with discrimination but in a different manner.
For Europeans who came to the United States because of the dissatisfaction with their homeland, integration has been difficult but not humiliating. “Some nonwhite immigrant groups will also face a more difficult time in translating their economic success into residential mobility and social integration at the highest levels of American society,” (Waters 327). European immigrants believe that if they learned how to act as Americans, they would be acknowledged as ones of them. For blacks to be fully accepted into white America, one has to like the people who have oppressed and humiliated them over the years.
The author compares West Indians with African Americans to bring out the difference between voluntary and involuntary immigrants who do not go through the same kind of prejudice and cultural inversion. West Indians are also descendants of slaves. Why is it that their initial integration into their own societies as involuntary migrants does not create a hateful minority attitude towards European immigrants, when they arrived to America. From the responses of people interviewed, the move to America appears to provide the immigrants with a foreign status which makes their response to prejudice more prone to those voluntary immigrants who are less scorned by the whites than the black Americans. Whites react in another way to West Indians compared to African Americans (chapter 4). Unlike the other immigrants who see discrimination and prejudice as isolated cases with short term barriers to overcome, immigrants from Africa see these as permanent challenges. Based on the article “A West Indian”, treatment from white individuals to the immigrants is not grounded on their color, but the immigrants from the Caribbean will not put up with racism when it takes place.
The Culture that Immigrants Bring with Them
The author has described the variation in racial associations in the Caribbean and the United States as a crucial difference between the societies in one of which the racism prevails but does not prevail in the other. The important difference between these societies is based largely on slavery. Comparing these two societies, the author argues that in many countries where the slavery had prevailed like Britain, France, or the Caribbean, many people believe in the natural superiority of the whites. Their cultures are not racist since this ideology is a minor constituent in their scheme of belief. It serves no crucial cultural or socioeconomic functions and is not a serious constituent in the way people classify themselves physically and socially. This is not the case in America. Slavery that existed from its founding until the civil rights movement still carries on in the very core of American culture. According to the author, this means that Afro-Americans are “the other” in social identities of white Americans. Racism is the belief in the fundamental weakness of blacks. The writer argues that a key difference between the Caribbean and the United States is that the latter is more horrifying in all invasive presence of the white group and white culture and the humiliating sense of racial seclusion and misery.
A study in 1939 by Ira Reid noted that all black immigrants considered said that whites who had come across the Caribbean did not come close to the whites in America in their level of racial resentment and prejudice. A number of studies show the feelings of anger and grief African Americans suffer every day because of white’s behavior and attitude. The author has described the results for the poorest African Americans of living in such a radicalized society. These wounds and scars are inflicted before the blacks become more enlightened in regard of intelligence, black beauty, and character. These wounds and scars result in a deep-seated anger, a blistering sense of rage, and an obsessive distrust regarding the ability of the United States in providing justice. The immigrants define this disparity between the two societies as one where Americans, both black and white seem to be fanatical with racialism. This is a word used to refer to an elevated sensitivity to race, a tendency that regards dealing with people in terms of their racial orientation.
The perception that black Americans are quick to cry as compared to immigrants from the Caribbean, their long standing belief that chances exist in the United States. They also perceived that their black skin will not stop them from taking advantage of these opportunities – it is in the sense that racism, while it exists, can surely be overcome with willpower and hard work. This propelled the immigrants to create a majority back society in America in the first place. There is a strong mental incentive for immigrants to believe that African Americans overrate the role of race in everyday life and in preventing opportunity. If one moved to a society to be successful where he/she is in the minority group, he/she cannot believe that color will limit his/her success.
The idea that racial discrimination might keep a group down, it will not prevent them from prevailing as individuals. This reflects the tradition within West Indian immigrants, they fight individually and not for their communal rights. West Indians usually stressed their British ties and alien status as the way to combat segregation. Black Americans usually perceive little possibility for an individual to succeed by leaving the category of African Americans; thus, they tend to grow a collective strategy to provide voice for their lack of equality. The first generation of the West Indians believed that by working hard and avoiding racialism and combating real racism with loud cries of protest, they can remove themselves from the segregated black community. The belief that personal effort can conquer racial barriers does not mean that West Indians deny the existence of racism, they rather argue that they are capable of noticing attitudes and behavior that might prevent them from attaining socioeconomic success. The immigrants usually see racism at work and in society, and have the thought that it should be challenged. The cultural beliefs and practices of Indian immigrants who come to the United States show two changes caused by the influence from Americans. The first is their status as voluntary immigrants, which makes them anticipate hard work making them ambitious and anxious to conquer racial abuse, and the second is their experiences in the Caribbean society. This leads them to anticipate discrimination.
Encountering the Reality of American Race Relations
The prospect that immigrants have about race relations in the United States do not make them ready for their incidents. According to the article, most individuals show their surprise at the racial situation they go through, and many show deep shock. The immigrants arrive expecting structural racism and blocked mobility for African Americans where whites have economic and political power. Indians from the West go to the United States ready to find racial segregation. The problem of racial discrimination is not a secret throughout the world, and most immigrants follow friends and family who have sent information back home about life in America. When they think of racism, they link it to the experiences of discrimination evident back at home. In America, the white population and light-skinned blacks had a possibility to be higher in socioeconomic status, and it was rare to spot a white person at the bottom of this ladder. Thus, race was not the deciding factor of one’s socioeconomic position.
The people who immigrated to America expected challenges to black mobility while getting to the top. It could be hard because of the whites’ control that guarded everything they have. In definitions of race relations in the Caribbean, distinctions of race were often related with difference in color. Respondents remember their lighter skinned counter parts had wealth, power and top level jobs in the society. The foreign born and native-born thoughts of racism in the structure of work relations in public schools and food sector have striking similarities in the views of their white coworkers. Like immigrants, most black Americans experience systematic racism and discrimination at work, they have enormous personal experiences of denied promotions and opportunities.
The white teachers did not see the ugliness of discrimination experienced in schools in terms of dissimilarities in treating the black American and the Caribbean teachers. Many of the whites thought the blacks did not correctly perceive this system, and none thought that remarkable things like promotions were being kept from the blacks. The achievement idea of the West Indian immigrants prepares them to fight for success in America (Model 345). They think it will be more difficult for the African Americans than for the whites because they know that whites have more political and economic powers than the blacks. The black Americans conclude that the white population will try to keep power and will oppose attempts by the blacks to come into the highest points in the society. The black Americans had bad experiences due to their skin color that included professors doubting the good performance of the blacks and promotions handed to less skilled white people.
Immigrants from the Caribbean to America have outperformed black Americans on various points of socioeconomic status. According to recent studies, Afro-Caribbeans earn more than black Americans. The study shows that Afro-Caribbeans have a 15% more chance of getting employment than black Americans. Despite much debate on this matter, the reasons for these black ethnic differences are not well understood. Previous research findings from studies carried out in 1925 show major difference between two groups of blacks in terms of performance, which is somewhat higher in Afro-Caribbeans than in African Americans. Later studies based on census carried out by machines have relayed legitimate data (Model 350). Tabulations based on social studies data of 1970 use sample of economic and social success of several groups and take note of the minority group. Comparison between native born African Americans and Indians shows African Americans have lower income than West Indian immigrants. The author holds cultural advantages accountable for this result. The results show that children of Indians from the West are gaining more favoritism from the white population than their Caribbean counterparts. Another advantage lies in merging of foreign and native Indians from the West. It is achievable to separate the individual contribution of each party to lead to this outcome. This is a problem for reasons yet to be solved. Most second generation Americans show socioeconomic superiority over the third and the following generations. In an attempt to get around the issue of white favoritism, the author states the outcome of results of comparisons made to second generation of West Indians. His strategy was to clearly identify of second generation of West Indians from African Americans so that they can analyze the individual results separately. The results of the more specific comparison favor West Indians (Model 353).
One distinguishing factor on the immigrant population coming from Caribbean in comparison to those from Africa, is that those from the Caribbean are racially diverse. Approximations for 2009 show that almost half of all Caribbean immigrants identified themselves as blacks. Over 90 percent of immigrants from other countries, among them Jamaica and Haiti, considered themselves as blacks. On the other hand, black immigrants summed up for only 3, 14, and 47 percent of immigrants coming to the United States from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Dominica respectively. Immigration by the blacks from these countries has increased aiding the increase in diversity of the Caribbean immigrant population. This phenomenon has increased their success due to their large numbers in the countries they have immigrated to. Between 2006 and 2009 the average number of blacks from the Caribbean reduced by almost four percent (Model 357). This was a result of the economic depreciation in America. The number of immigrants from Trinidad and Tobago reduced by seven percent decreasing from 194000 to 181000 while the number of immigrants from Jamaica remained almost the same.
Data estimates from few Hispanic center show that immigrants coming from the Caribbean are less likely to be illegal immigrants or come into the country without permission. Data shows that about 16 percent of Caribbean born blacks did not receive permission to enter the countries as compared to 21 percent of African Americans and 29 percent of black immigrants from various regions. The combined total of black Caribbean population immigrating was still enormous. Single parent families experience variety of socioeconomic challenges, for example, poverty, inadequate parental command and substandard education. Research shows that Caribbean black children raised in a family with a single parent attain lower test results than those reared in families with both parents. Studies show that both African and Caribbean proportion of households with single parents with children, is almost double to that of United States population. Families of Caribbean blacks are more likely to be a single parent household (Model 360). They stand at 17 percent, while African families are at 15 percent. Within Africans, single parent households are common for people from Cape Verde, Guinea, and immigrants from refugee sending countries like Somalia and Liberia. In Caribbean origin countries, immigrants from Dominican Republic and St. Lucia are more likely to be families of single parenthood.
Black Caribbean movement to America is in strong economic, cultural, and historical background flanked by the two regions. Immigration flaws of the future are prone to be affected by the dynamics of the United States political and social relationships with Caribbean states and the ways in which these dynamics influence immigration policies. “Immigrants who expect structural racism but not interpersonal racism will do very well in America,” (Waters 188). The ongoing influx of refugees from Cuba, for example, is because of changes in relationship between Cuba and the United States. At the same time, America and countries from the Caribbean are interconnected by relationships between families in America and their relatives in their original countries. If the current laws continue to be in force, it will give a crucial basis for the prolonged influx of legal Caribbean immigrants going to the United States in the coming years. In spite of the fact that legal immigration is encouraged by the immigration sector, changes in immigration laws are made to solve the problem. The closeness of the Caribbean to America encourages immigrants to move to America. While black immigrants from the Caribbean are more educated, African Americans have a strong command in language skills; this shows a high level of the labor force representation. Caribbean black immigrants show higher income earnings compared to their African American counterparts even though African Americans are in the immigrant group.
The concentration of black Caribbean immigrants is geographically located in states of New York and Florida. Long destinations for immigrants from the Caribbean may give integration advantages to the people. Black Caribbean immigrants are more prone to living as single parent families with children under the age of 18, a condition that complicates the family’s socioeconomic position and the well-being of the child. The way people view the issue of immigration has evolved over the years. This is because of increased ties between the United States and the Caribbean region. Their contribution has been noted and has been appreciated as the relationship continues to thrive.
Works Cited
Model, Suzanne. The West Indian Diaspora. Routledge, 2011.
Print.
Waters, Mary C. Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities. New
York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1999. Internet resource.
