In Jason Parker’s article, “Capital of the Caribbean”, Parker describes the growth of equality and politics in the Harlem area due to many international affairs occurring at that time period. Ever since the black immigrants came to the Harlem area, they attempted to influence the politics of their surroundings. Early on around the WWII time frame, many Caribbean immigrants and the native African Americans formed political organizations that rallied for equality and justice in the community. On the international scale, Italy advanced into Ethiopian territory and tried to take over the area. Throughout the African history, Ethiopia stood as a symbol of pride and strength for the black people. The Ethiopians had resisted many invaders since the beginning of time. With the invasion into Ethiopian territory, many of the black people around the world, including in Harlem, were angered by this ordeal. This situation brought the black people together to rally for support for the Ethiopians. The United States of America did not want to get involved directly with this international affair, so they formed a deal where the U.S. received many naval bases in many of the Caribbean nations. Franklin D. Roosevelt became involved with many of the Caribbean affairs within the U.S. and within the countries where the naval bases were located. This whole ordeal led to the advancements of black equality in the U.S. as the blacks placed pressure on Roosevelt to support the Caribbean economy. This was the beginning of the path for black equality in the United States of America and in international countries.

Paule Marshall’s novel, Brown Girl, Brownstones is a great literary piece that shows the insights of what many of the Caribbean immigrants faced while living in Harlem of NYC. The novel centers around a young girl, approximately the age of 11, named Selina. She lives in the town of Harlem with her older sister, named Ina, her father, named Deighton, and her mother, named Silla. At the start of the story, Selina describes the setting of the brick and gothic styled houses on her block. This is the first time the readers realize how the Caribbean immigrants of the town viewed the houses on Harlem. Selina loved the way the houses looked with their majestic beauty and she always thought, “her house was alive” (Marshall 2).

The readers can see that Selina, like many other kids living in Harlem as immigrants, experiences many conflicts within herself about her relationship to the white people in the Harlem community. Selina reminisces about living with a white family and feeling proud to be one of them, “she was no longer a dark girl alone…she threw her head back until it trembled proudly” (Marshall 3). However, once Selina remembers who she is and how the white people in Harlem treat Caribbean immigrants, she becomes distraught and feels left out of the world, “She did not belong here. She was something vulgar in a holy place” (Marshall 4). Whenever Selina’s family received old hand-me-down clothes from the Jewish families in the neighborhood, “Selina would spend the day hating the unknown child to whom they belonged [to]” (Marshall 8).

On the other end of the spectrum, Marshall’s novel shows the many difficulties that the white families faced as they were slowly displaced from their homes as the immigrants came flooding into Harlem. In the same brownstone house that Selina lives in, there lives a sick elderly woman named Miss Mary and her adult daughter, Maritze. These two women are white people who had lived in Harlem before the influx of black immigrants who came to the area. Miss Mary and Maritze face many complications with each other due to their different opinions. Miss Mary wishes to stay in the same home in Harlem while Maritze desperately wants to leave the Harlem area for a better place. Maritze pleads with her mother and says, “Every decent white person’s moving away, getting out. Except us. And they’re so many nice places where we could live” (Marshall 30). The readers grasp the fact that many of the white families who are still left in Harlem as their companions leave the place are filled with many hard difficulties. There were many changes occurring to the Harlem community for both the white families present there and for the new immigrants families that were coming into the area.

The novel shows the hardships that the immigrant families face when it comes to getting jobs and for getting a place to live in. Deighton, who is the father of Selina, is a man who tries out new jobs all the time. He is always looking for a job that can get him a good amount of money. Deighton is currently enrolled in a training center to become an accountant. He had heard that the white people earn a lot of money in this profession. However, many of his black friends make it clear to him that the white people will not let him receive the same salary as them. Seifert Yearwood says to Deighton, “you can know all the accounting there is, these people still not gon have you up in their fancy office and pulling down the same money as them” (Marshall 33). Deighton becomes offended and moves along on his own way. This short but important encounter between the two friends shows the everyday struggles that the immigrants faced in this new land. They had to work really hard just to make a living enough to support the family. It was hard for the Caribbean immigrants to move up the social ladder in society.

The novel also depicts the strains that many couples in relationships experience from living in poverty. Deighton and his wife, Silla, have a very unstable relationship due to their differences about what their future should be like. Deighton’s sister had died back in his native country, leaving a plot of land around 2 acres large in his name. Deighton had always wanted to go back to his native country to live there with his own people. Silla, however, has different views on their lifestyle. Silla desperately wants to stay in Brooklyn and buy one of the brownstone houses for their family. Silla keeps insisting Deighton to save some money up every week to use as the down payment for the house. Deighton, however, is insistent on keeping the land so that the family could live in his native country, Barbados. This forms a hostile relationship between the two. Silla even takes it a step further by saying, “I feel I could do cruel things to the man [Deighton]” (Marshall 27). Their relationship highlights the importance of trying to make a decent lifestyle for the family. Silla wants to buy a house so that the family could live comfortably in the neighborhood. Deighton, on the other hand, wants to leave Harlem and the Americas to go back home, where he feels his family will be the safest and the happiest. It shows the effort that many of the immigrants made just to etch out a comfortable living for their family.