It’s interesting to see how discrimination against social groups assumes a different guise when talking about the Black community in New York City. It’s a strange thought to think that America’s historically most discriminated group of people, when put in the position of receiving immigrants into their community, segregate themselves among ethnic lines. Black Americans living in Harlem weren’t crazy about hordes of Caribbean immigrants who tried to integrate themselves into American society at the turn of the 20th century. In a way it makes sense, look at every wave of immigration that this country has ever had. White protestants didn’t care much for the Irish because of their willingness to work for lower wages (and also the predominance of Catholicism among the group). Black Americans didn’t care much for Caribbean immigrants for similar reasons, minus the Catholicism of course. People like to look out for their own and tend to react with hostility when confronted with people, who they construe as different, try and integrate themselves into a community in which they are not a majority.
Not only does this constitute the highest form of hypocrisy, this hostility did nothing to foster a sense of community among people who, by all means, shared a very similar standard of living. The truth of the matter is, white people didn’t see a difference between the myriad shades of brown that were now populating Harlem. Pretty much everyone who wasn’t a white anglosaxon protestant was looked down upon in one way or another. While it is true that those who were heard speaking a foreign language such as Spanish and French received concessions and much more leeway to maneuver about Americas rigid early 20th century social ladder, people who made the trip from the Caribbean to the United States often suffered greatly during their travels. For example, only white workers stationed at the Panama Canal during its construction were paid in gold, the rest be them Haitian, Jamaican, or Guyanese were all forced to live in the same packed tenement buildings and were only paid in Panamanian Silver coins. Living off subsistence wages the process of making enough money to simultaneously send remittances to their family back home and pay for boat fare to America was a challenge of the highest caliber.
Without a doubt the surge in Caribbean immigration caused massive social change within Manhattan. With the help of certain beneficiary groups those who came here from the Caribbean eventually managed to carve themselves out a niche in the city despite the adversity they faced from all sides. Coupled with all the Black Americans who found themselves pushed north because of rising cost of living downtown these two very distinct groups of people managed to coalesce into the multi-ethnic neighborhood of Harlem, in the process giving the neighborhood an incredibly distinct feel.
