The article Caribbean Transnationalism As a Gendered Process by Christine G.T. Ho is about the role women play in transnational ties. It also talks about the problems that these woman have to face in this type of system. The author says that both Men and Women are affected differently by the effects of globalization and capitalism. While these effects have been negative for both Men and Women, this article looks more into the effects on women. In the Caribbean Families normally have a matrifocal structure. The article talks about the family structure for men that is less involved since these men tend to have outside relations with other women. The women are therefore, burdened financially and emotionally.This leads to a greater financial dependence on the Men. Due to Economic conditions, Men do not have high wages either. Also, women are only able to get informal and low paying jobs because they do not have the proper schooling.
The Caribbean experience although similar to European experience is also different because of three main reasons. These reasons are men have been paid very-low wages, women have not been left out of public workspace, and women have to work much harder to take care of the double workload and are still never able to not take care of household responsibilities. Women have been limited in the types of jobs they can get. They have been limited to low paying wage work. Men in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico also face similar situations. Recently there has been an increase in the jobs available for women because women are cheaper and more submissive. At this time, Men lack jobs which forces them to leave home. Some women have turned to migration. Women play an important role in transnational ties and Kinship ties. These responsibilities are not always good. Migration can take tole on the relationship between husband and wife as well as on the relationship between parents and their children.
This article reminds me of the typical roles of men and women in European as well as other societies. A Caribbean Women’s role in their families as well as maintaining transnational ties is interesting because normally I would think these kind of responsibilities would be the responsibilities of Men. Also the importance of these transnational networks are shown. These networks are fully dependent on trust and if a family member does not uphold their responsibilities, these trust networks are damaged greatly.
“Black like Who?” by Reuel Rogers is about the consciousness between African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans and the differences in group identity. Identifying all black people as one group of black people ignores many class and ethnic differences among the black people along with ignoring the diversity among these people. There are many important questions being asked such as the identities foreign born black people take. Whether they identify themselves with their home country or as African Americans. Some researchers have said that foreign born blacks tend to identify with their homeland to distance themselves from native blacks and to avoid stigmatization. Other researchers say that racial inequalities force Afro-Caribbeans to identify racially and to join the African Americans to fight against all the inequalities they face. The author says that the choice the Afro-Caribbeans make are not dichotomous.
For African Americans, a grouped identity allows them to move as a group against racial discrimination. Individual African Americans tend to believe that their fates are connected to the fates of African Americans as a whole. The is also a strong consciousness of African Americans as a group that comes from their dissatisfaction with the group’s political, economic and social resources. This group consciousness is specially important in prominent middle class black people because they tend to come into contact with white people more often and are therefore more likely to take part in these institutions that act as group mobilization ground.
On the other hand Afro-Caribbeans tend to embrace their ethnicity and racial identity. Their home country is usually their primary identity. They do not share a high level of racial group consciousness because they are not worried about or preoccupied by racism like African Americans are. They are also not connected to institutional networks like the African Americans. If they do have a high sense of conscience, then they are normally connected to transnational attachments. These patterns continue because of these transnational attachments.
I thought it was interesting when Rogers was talking about the lives African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans tend to compare their lives to. African Americans tend to compare their lives to the lives of White people while the Afro-Caribbeans tend to compare their lives to their situations back in their home country. I think it might be something that any ethnic group will do. they tend to compare their lives at the present to their lives in the past or to other people’s lives. It made me think that people have different expectations based on what they are comparing their lives to.
“Growing up West Indian and African American” by Mary C. Waters is about the development of an identity by West Indians and what it would mean to choose a certain identity. The said that first-generation Caribbean immigrants identified themselves according to the nation of their origin and distanced themselves from African Americans. In the second generation, however, this was mixed because an identity for them as based on race, class, gender, etc. The second generation people who identified themselves racially were usually from low-class background while the people who identified ethnically were more likely to be from a middle-class background. Middle-class children could have had better opportunities and were therefore, possibly separated from black culture. Teenagers who identified themselves as African-Americans often had more complaints about Americans because of inequality issues while teens who identified ethnically believed that with with hard work success was possible.
This was an interesting chapter because I once against felt as thought what as being said by the author to be true. I also felt that their was more negative outlook by African Americans and possibly for a good reason considering their situation while West Indians had a more positive and hardworking outlook that allowed them to work hard all the time. The author also mentioned immigrants getting more opportunities if they identified less American which was also interesting because I had never really thought of opportunities in that manner. However, at the same time, it doesn’t come as a total surprise to me because I know about some programs and opportunities that are meant primarily for certain groups of people.
