I found one particular line that Sherri-Ann P. Butterfield said very interesting. “In many ways New York City is more Caribbean than the Caribbean itself.” In many ways this is true, as the 1999 “Current Population” survey puts West Indians at roughly 600,000, about one-third of New York City’s black population.
Butterfield documents the interviews of many second generation West Indians in her article. One of them who lived in New York for thirty-five years, Shauna, says that she finally decided to take advantage of the parades New York had to offer, even though she does not belong to those ethnic groups that were being represented. Butterfield says that immigrants appreciate New York for all it has to offer, and because they can bond with other “like-minded” people within their own enclaves. However, sometimes the extreme diversity comes at a price. Thirty-year-old Marie discusses an incident that occurred when she was in high school, where her teacher assumed she was African American because she has their skin color. Her teacher asked her to discuss the “black experience,” while Marie had no idea what it was.
Just because two people have the same skin color does not mean they are from the same place or have the same culture. This is a much too common assumption made by Americans. Americans generally are too close-minded, and seem to think that there are only a few cultures represented in New York—European, Asian, African American, and Spanish. They do not seem to realize that within those cultures are many smaller divisions of subcultures.
This incident brought up the issue that West Indians sometimes felt pressured to be more “black American.” Because not much is known about West Indian culture, they feel like they need to conform to other cultures to satisfy the general public. However, this does not sit well with the first generation West Indians, who strongly believe in culture preservation. Minority cultures should not have to act like others to be accepted and understood in society. New York is a place of diversity, and if everyone acted like everyone else, it wouldn’t be such.
