Anne Spry Rush
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588558
- eISBN:
- 9780191728990
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588558.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Cultural History
This chapter explores the role of middle-class West Indians and native Britons, who shared a vision of a British Empire sustained by a culture based on respectability, in creating BBC policies and ...
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This chapter explores the role of middle-class West Indians and native Britons, who shared a vision of a British Empire sustained by a culture based on respectability, in creating BBC policies and broadcasts for the Caribbean from the 1940s to the 1960s. While striving to present to the West Indian audience the best of British and Caribbean culture, the London-based Colonial Service Department of the BBC, which included both native Britons and West Indians, advanced a color-blind version of middle-class Britishness, while also encouraging West Indians to explore their Caribbeanness. The Colonial Service declined as its focus on cultural uplift was challenged by regional differences, American culture, and a radio audience that had expanded well beyond the middle-class. Nevertheless, its success through the mid 1950s reaffirmed West Indians’ place in the British World in ways that would continue to resonate in the Caribbean and in Britain itself.Less
This chapter explores the role of middle-class West Indians and native Britons, who shared a vision of a British Empire sustained by a culture based on respectability, in creating BBC policies and broadcasts for the Caribbean from the 1940s to the 1960s. While striving to present to the West Indian audience the best of British and Caribbean culture, the London-based Colonial Service Department of the BBC, which included both native Britons and West Indians, advanced a color-blind version of middle-class Britishness, while also encouraging West Indians to explore their Caribbeanness. The Colonial Service declined as its focus on cultural uplift was challenged by regional differences, American culture, and a radio audience that had expanded well beyond the middle-class. Nevertheless, its success through the mid 1950s reaffirmed West Indians’ place in the British World in ways that would continue to resonate in the Caribbean and in Britain itself.
Anne Spry Rush
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588558
- eISBN:
- 9780191728990
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588558.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Cultural History
In the first half of the twentieth century Britishness was an integral part of the culture that pervaded life in the colonial Caribbean. Caribbean peoples were encouraged to identify with social ...
More
In the first half of the twentieth century Britishness was an integral part of the culture that pervaded life in the colonial Caribbean. Caribbean peoples were encouraged to identify with social structures and cultural values touted as intrinsically British. Many middle-class West Indians of color duly adopted Britishness as part of their own identity. Yet even as they re-fashioned themselves, West Indians recast Britishness in their own image, basing it on hierarchical ideas of respectability that were traditionally British, but also on their own expectations of racial and geographical inclusiveness. Britain became for these Caribbean people the focus of an imperial British identity, an identity which stood separate from and yet intimately related to their strong feelings for their tropical homelands. Moving from the heights of empire in 1900 to the independence era of the 1960s, this book argues that middle-class West Indians used their understanding of Britishness to establish a place for themselves in the British imperial world, and to negotiate the challenges of decolonization. Through a focus on education, voluntary organization, the challenges of war, radio broadcasting, and British royalty it explores how this process worked in the daily lives of West Indians in both the Caribbean and the British Isles. This book thus traces West Indians' participation in a complex process of cultural transition as they manipulated Britishness and their relationship to it not only as colonial peoples but also as Britons.Less
In the first half of the twentieth century Britishness was an integral part of the culture that pervaded life in the colonial Caribbean. Caribbean peoples were encouraged to identify with social structures and cultural values touted as intrinsically British. Many middle-class West Indians of color duly adopted Britishness as part of their own identity. Yet even as they re-fashioned themselves, West Indians recast Britishness in their own image, basing it on hierarchical ideas of respectability that were traditionally British, but also on their own expectations of racial and geographical inclusiveness. Britain became for these Caribbean people the focus of an imperial British identity, an identity which stood separate from and yet intimately related to their strong feelings for their tropical homelands. Moving from the heights of empire in 1900 to the independence era of the 1960s, this book argues that middle-class West Indians used their understanding of Britishness to establish a place for themselves in the British imperial world, and to negotiate the challenges of decolonization. Through a focus on education, voluntary organization, the challenges of war, radio broadcasting, and British royalty it explores how this process worked in the daily lives of West Indians in both the Caribbean and the British Isles. This book thus traces West Indians' participation in a complex process of cultural transition as they manipulated Britishness and their relationship to it not only as colonial peoples but also as Britons.
J. R. Ward
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205630
- eISBN:
- 9780191676710
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205630.003.0019
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
The years from 1748 to 1815 constitute a new phase of British expansion in the Caribbean, when the region was a main focus of national strategic effort. During this period, the West Indies achieved ...
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The years from 1748 to 1815 constitute a new phase of British expansion in the Caribbean, when the region was a main focus of national strategic effort. During this period, the West Indies achieved their greatest economic importance within the British Empire. After holding steady at about 10% during the first half of the 18th century, their share of British exports and imports rose to about 20% by 1815. Subsequently, the British West Indies’ relative importance would decline sharply. The colonies’ economic standing was determined above all by their performance as sugar producers. The West Indies’ share of British trade increased during the 1748–1815 period partly through their established function as sugar producers. The free coloureds became a conspicuous intermediate element in British West Indian society, but without performing an effective integrating role. They were almost as colour-conscious as the whites. Mixed race people insisted that a degree of European ancestry gave them superiority over the black masses.Less
The years from 1748 to 1815 constitute a new phase of British expansion in the Caribbean, when the region was a main focus of national strategic effort. During this period, the West Indies achieved their greatest economic importance within the British Empire. After holding steady at about 10% during the first half of the 18th century, their share of British exports and imports rose to about 20% by 1815. Subsequently, the British West Indies’ relative importance would decline sharply. The colonies’ economic standing was determined above all by their performance as sugar producers. The West Indies’ share of British trade increased during the 1748–1815 period partly through their established function as sugar producers. The free coloureds became a conspicuous intermediate element in British West Indian society, but without performing an effective integrating role. They were almost as colour-conscious as the whites. Mixed race people insisted that a degree of European ancestry gave them superiority over the black masses.
William A. Green
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202783
- eISBN:
- 9780191675515
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202783.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter discusses the emergence of immigration in the West Indies, which unwittingly saved the sugar economy of Trinidad and British Guiana. Immigration or labour migration in the mid-century ...
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This chapter discusses the emergence of immigration in the West Indies, which unwittingly saved the sugar economy of Trinidad and British Guiana. Immigration or labour migration in the mid-century was a pervasive and volatile issue in the British Caribbean. Attempts by the British Caribbean to recruit labour caused an inter-colonial debacle. It posed a question on the anti-slave activities of the Royal Navy, revived the old controversy on the merits of the Sierra Leone colony, and affected Britain's efforts to ‘civilize’ Africa. In addition, immigration intruded on the relation of Britain with foreign countries. Within West Indian society, immigration was most prevalent in the colonies of Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guiana. A decade after the abolition of slavery and emancipation, the labouring population in these colonies steadily declined. The abolition of the apprenticeship system also reduced the scale of the worker population in these colonies, prompting the recruitment of a workforce from other countries in order to save the plantations from its doom.Less
This chapter discusses the emergence of immigration in the West Indies, which unwittingly saved the sugar economy of Trinidad and British Guiana. Immigration or labour migration in the mid-century was a pervasive and volatile issue in the British Caribbean. Attempts by the British Caribbean to recruit labour caused an inter-colonial debacle. It posed a question on the anti-slave activities of the Royal Navy, revived the old controversy on the merits of the Sierra Leone colony, and affected Britain's efforts to ‘civilize’ Africa. In addition, immigration intruded on the relation of Britain with foreign countries. Within West Indian society, immigration was most prevalent in the colonies of Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guiana. A decade after the abolition of slavery and emancipation, the labouring population in these colonies steadily declined. The abolition of the apprenticeship system also reduced the scale of the worker population in these colonies, prompting the recruitment of a workforce from other countries in order to save the plantations from its doom.
Anne Spry Rush
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588558
- eISBN:
- 9780191728990
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588558.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Cultural History
This chapter opens with an overview of the nature of middle-class West Indian understandings of Britishness, and suggests the impact of Caribbean British identity on West Indian societies in the ...
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This chapter opens with an overview of the nature of middle-class West Indian understandings of Britishness, and suggests the impact of Caribbean British identity on West Indian societies in the twentieth-century colonial period. West Indians’ idea of Britishness, which combined a focus on respectability with expectations of racial and geographical inclusiveness, allowed them to form strong bonds with native Britons (persons born and bred in the British Isles) and create a place for themselves in the colonial world. As empire declined they would struggle to unravel Caribbean society from the Britishness they considered a vital part of their own identity. This introduction explores these ideas in the context of recent literature on the British World, colonial Caribbean society, decolonization, and the meaning of imperial culture, outlines the geographical and analytical parameters of the book, and provides working definitions of significant terms used in the text.Less
This chapter opens with an overview of the nature of middle-class West Indian understandings of Britishness, and suggests the impact of Caribbean British identity on West Indian societies in the twentieth-century colonial period. West Indians’ idea of Britishness, which combined a focus on respectability with expectations of racial and geographical inclusiveness, allowed them to form strong bonds with native Britons (persons born and bred in the British Isles) and create a place for themselves in the colonial world. As empire declined they would struggle to unravel Caribbean society from the Britishness they considered a vital part of their own identity. This introduction explores these ideas in the context of recent literature on the British World, colonial Caribbean society, decolonization, and the meaning of imperial culture, outlines the geographical and analytical parameters of the book, and provides working definitions of significant terms used in the text.
Anne Spry Rush
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588558
- eISBN:
- 9780191728990
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588558.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Cultural History
This second chapter on education explores how, at mid-century, prominent West Indian educators worked to preserve the traditional British-style grammar school at the secondary level, resisting the ...
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This second chapter on education explores how, at mid-century, prominent West Indian educators worked to preserve the traditional British-style grammar school at the secondary level, resisting the efforts of British colonial officers to advance changes in curricula that officials believed would make it more relevant to Caribbean society and more useful to West Indian people. Utilizing reports from educators from the 1920s–40s it explores the roles of the imperial government, colonial officials, and West Indians in the education debate. It argues that West Indian educators resisted changes in part because they believed that traditional education would continue to be the key to advancement within the British social structure in which they lived, and in part because they considered British culture integral to their own identity. The value West Indians placed on British–style schooling would continue to affect the nature of Caribbean education into the post–war period.Less
This second chapter on education explores how, at mid-century, prominent West Indian educators worked to preserve the traditional British-style grammar school at the secondary level, resisting the efforts of British colonial officers to advance changes in curricula that officials believed would make it more relevant to Caribbean society and more useful to West Indian people. Utilizing reports from educators from the 1920s–40s it explores the roles of the imperial government, colonial officials, and West Indians in the education debate. It argues that West Indian educators resisted changes in part because they believed that traditional education would continue to be the key to advancement within the British social structure in which they lived, and in part because they considered British culture integral to their own identity. The value West Indians placed on British–style schooling would continue to affect the nature of Caribbean education into the post–war period.
B. W. Higman
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205661
- eISBN:
- 9780191676741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205661.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter focuses on the third phase in the historiography of the British West Indies by Waddell. Waddell contended that this phase began in the early 1950s and, when he wrote, was ‘as yet in its ...
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This chapter focuses on the third phase in the historiography of the British West Indies by Waddell. Waddell contended that this phase began in the early 1950s and, when he wrote, was ‘as yet in its early stages’. This phase, he predicted, ‘may be expected to be dominated by the West Indian professional historian’. It is perhaps significant that in the periods before Waddell's third phase, there was no attempt to study the history of the writing of West Indian history. An important general feature of history-writing in the West Indies since 1950 has been an effort to think of the British colonies as part of a larger region and a larger world to subvert the fragmentation rooted in the geophysical history of the archipelago exploited by European imperialism. Efforts to rethink the history of the territories which once formed the British West Indies and to rewrite that history from a West Indian point of view have been only partially successful. The fragmented nationalisms of the modern Caribbean reflect the Imperial realities of the past, and some questions can be conceptualized efficiently only by restoring to the narrative the organizing principles of British Empire.Less
This chapter focuses on the third phase in the historiography of the British West Indies by Waddell. Waddell contended that this phase began in the early 1950s and, when he wrote, was ‘as yet in its early stages’. This phase, he predicted, ‘may be expected to be dominated by the West Indian professional historian’. It is perhaps significant that in the periods before Waddell's third phase, there was no attempt to study the history of the writing of West Indian history. An important general feature of history-writing in the West Indies since 1950 has been an effort to think of the British colonies as part of a larger region and a larger world to subvert the fragmentation rooted in the geophysical history of the archipelago exploited by European imperialism. Efforts to rethink the history of the territories which once formed the British West Indies and to rewrite that history from a West Indian point of view have been only partially successful. The fragmented nationalisms of the modern Caribbean reflect the Imperial realities of the past, and some questions can be conceptualized efficiently only by restoring to the narrative the organizing principles of British Empire.
Bill Schwarz
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719064746
- eISBN:
- 9781781700426
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719064746.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This book addresses the analytical consequences of the encounter between West Indian and Briton. West Indian emigrants came from societies well advanced in the prerequisites of breaking from ...
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This book addresses the analytical consequences of the encounter between West Indian and Briton. West Indian emigrants came from societies well advanced in the prerequisites of breaking from colonialism. The West Indian presence created new possibilities within the metropolitan culture for the issues to be spoken. West Indian exiles in London played a decisive role. For West Indians to ‘become’ postcolonial they were required to destroy the external authority of the British. The Pleasures of Exile and Beyond a Boundary represent the theorisation of the migrant view of England. Through the 1960s, West Indians in Britain were alive to the cultural developments in the newly independent countries of black Africa, and representatives of a new generation of black African novelists found in the Caribbean Artists Movement a welcoming home.Less
This book addresses the analytical consequences of the encounter between West Indian and Briton. West Indian emigrants came from societies well advanced in the prerequisites of breaking from colonialism. The West Indian presence created new possibilities within the metropolitan culture for the issues to be spoken. West Indian exiles in London played a decisive role. For West Indians to ‘become’ postcolonial they were required to destroy the external authority of the British. The Pleasures of Exile and Beyond a Boundary represent the theorisation of the migrant view of England. Through the 1960s, West Indians in Britain were alive to the cultural developments in the newly independent countries of black Africa, and representatives of a new generation of black African novelists found in the Caribbean Artists Movement a welcoming home.
Catherine Hall
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719064746
- eISBN:
- 9781781700426
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719064746.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This chapter is concerned with the islands, and parts of the mainland, which were colonised by the British from the early seventeenth century and named as the British West Indies. The British West ...
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This chapter is concerned with the islands, and parts of the mainland, which were colonised by the British from the early seventeenth century and named as the British West Indies. The British West Indian colonies formed a link between North and South America and were strategically vital to the European powers. The task of the West India interest was to lobby the government and counter the abolitionists. The naming of black regiments as West Indian fractured the prevailing image of West Indian as signifying an exclusively white identity. Emancipation marked a critical break in ideas about the West Indian. James Anthony Froude's return to an insistence on white West Indians as ‘part of ourselves’ provides an endpoint to the preliminary charting of the shifting meanings of West Indian. Furthermore, the idea of West Indian is part of an older tradition of both colonial and anti-colonial thought.Less
This chapter is concerned with the islands, and parts of the mainland, which were colonised by the British from the early seventeenth century and named as the British West Indies. The British West Indian colonies formed a link between North and South America and were strategically vital to the European powers. The task of the West India interest was to lobby the government and counter the abolitionists. The naming of black regiments as West Indian fractured the prevailing image of West Indian as signifying an exclusively white identity. Emancipation marked a critical break in ideas about the West Indian. James Anthony Froude's return to an insistence on white West Indians as ‘part of ourselves’ provides an endpoint to the preliminary charting of the shifting meanings of West Indian. Furthermore, the idea of West Indian is part of an older tradition of both colonial and anti-colonial thought.
Mary Chamberlain
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719078767
- eISBN:
- 9781781701997
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719078767.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This chapter focuses on how the migration of the Caribbeans to various countries and their exposure to various political activities in their host countries led to the foundation of the Federation of ...
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This chapter focuses on how the migration of the Caribbeans to various countries and their exposure to various political activities in their host countries led to the foundation of the Federation of the West Indies. Apart from the racist discrimination, West Indian migrants in the United States also experienced a political freedom unknown in the West Indies, where conditions and censorship stifled free debate and few had the right to vote. This led to the formation of Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and African Blood Brotherhood (ABB), which played important role in mobilizing the West Indian migrants in the United States. Migrants particularly in New York also developed a unique radicalism based on West Indian consciousness and for whom national boundaries became increasingly meaningless. These political ideas gradually came home to the West Indies through various diasporic channels, thus making the West Indians at home aware of their race, the need for redistributive economic and social policies and some form of self-governance for the West Indies, principally through the mechanism of a federation.Less
This chapter focuses on how the migration of the Caribbeans to various countries and their exposure to various political activities in their host countries led to the foundation of the Federation of the West Indies. Apart from the racist discrimination, West Indian migrants in the United States also experienced a political freedom unknown in the West Indies, where conditions and censorship stifled free debate and few had the right to vote. This led to the formation of Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and African Blood Brotherhood (ABB), which played important role in mobilizing the West Indian migrants in the United States. Migrants particularly in New York also developed a unique radicalism based on West Indian consciousness and for whom national boundaries became increasingly meaningless. These political ideas gradually came home to the West Indies through various diasporic channels, thus making the West Indians at home aware of their race, the need for redistributive economic and social policies and some form of self-governance for the West Indies, principally through the mechanism of a federation.
Mary Chamberlain
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719078767
- eISBN:
- 9781781701997
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719078767.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This chapter focuses on the various cultural activities in colonial Barbados and the role played by them in forging a West Indian identity. Various societies such as Dan Blackett's Social Physical ...
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This chapter focuses on the various cultural activities in colonial Barbados and the role played by them in forging a West Indian identity. Various societies such as Dan Blackett's Social Physical Cultural Club, the Bank Hall Cultural Club, Arlington Newton's Universal Ulotrichian Society and the Forum Club were established with the direct objectives of debate, education and raising cultural consciousness among the Barbadians. Magazines such as Forum and Weymouth Magazine published a range of chapters on political and cultural developments, short stories and poems and advocated a common, West Indian literature and a Federated West Indies. Societies such as the Barbados Memorial Association or the Clennell Wickham Service Club aimed to offer adult education and publish cheap biographies of prominent Barbadians whereas sports Clubs such as the Empire also provided avenues for robust co-operation and the indigenisation of cricket.Less
This chapter focuses on the various cultural activities in colonial Barbados and the role played by them in forging a West Indian identity. Various societies such as Dan Blackett's Social Physical Cultural Club, the Bank Hall Cultural Club, Arlington Newton's Universal Ulotrichian Society and the Forum Club were established with the direct objectives of debate, education and raising cultural consciousness among the Barbadians. Magazines such as Forum and Weymouth Magazine published a range of chapters on political and cultural developments, short stories and poems and advocated a common, West Indian literature and a Federated West Indies. Societies such as the Barbados Memorial Association or the Clennell Wickham Service Club aimed to offer adult education and publish cheap biographies of prominent Barbadians whereas sports Clubs such as the Empire also provided avenues for robust co-operation and the indigenisation of cricket.
Philip Kasinitz, Juan Battle, and Inés Miyares
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520230118
- eISBN:
- 9780520927513
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520230118.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter explains that, more than for any other immigrant group in greater Miami, the future life chances of the children of Anglophone Caribbean immigrants will probably be shaped by race rather ...
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This chapter explains that, more than for any other immigrant group in greater Miami, the future life chances of the children of Anglophone Caribbean immigrants will probably be shaped by race rather than ethnicity. It explains that although about half the group strongly asserts a nation-of-origin identity, the fact that racial identity is stronger among the second generation than the 1.5 generation and the group's keen perception of itself as the victim of discrimination, combined with the lack of a distinctly West Indian residential or economic enclave, points to a growing, if predictably ambivalent, identification with the broader African American community. The chapter notes that for many second-generation West Indians, residential racial segregation remains an important obstacle not just to better housing, but also to access to public services, quality education, and perhaps even equal treatment from the police. It is possible that second-generation West Indian youth will be reluctant to take the jobs which the less well off of their parents now hold.Less
This chapter explains that, more than for any other immigrant group in greater Miami, the future life chances of the children of Anglophone Caribbean immigrants will probably be shaped by race rather than ethnicity. It explains that although about half the group strongly asserts a nation-of-origin identity, the fact that racial identity is stronger among the second generation than the 1.5 generation and the group's keen perception of itself as the victim of discrimination, combined with the lack of a distinctly West Indian residential or economic enclave, points to a growing, if predictably ambivalent, identification with the broader African American community. The chapter notes that for many second-generation West Indians, residential racial segregation remains an important obstacle not just to better housing, but also to access to public services, quality education, and perhaps even equal treatment from the police. It is possible that second-generation West Indian youth will be reluctant to take the jobs which the less well off of their parents now hold.
Andrea J. Queeley
John M. Kirk (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061092
- eISBN:
- 9780813051376
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061092.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
Chapter 1 follows the immigrants from arrival in Cuba through the eve of the 1959 revolution. The author first explores the emergence and deployment of racial respectability rooted in British ...
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Chapter 1 follows the immigrants from arrival in Cuba through the eve of the 1959 revolution. The author first explores the emergence and deployment of racial respectability rooted in British Victorian-era notions of middle class respectability. Then she goes on to situate the immigrants within the socioracial context of early twentieth-century Cuba, concluding that, while they were more advantaged than other working class laborers of color—due to their status as British subjects and their knowledge of English at a time of dramatic U.S. economic expansion—they nonetheless had to confront the harsh realities of racism and xenophobia. U.S. economic expansion included the development of the Guantánamo Naval Base where many immigrants and their Cuban-born children were employed. Queeley therefore explores diaspora and transnationalism in this local context.Less
Chapter 1 follows the immigrants from arrival in Cuba through the eve of the 1959 revolution. The author first explores the emergence and deployment of racial respectability rooted in British Victorian-era notions of middle class respectability. Then she goes on to situate the immigrants within the socioracial context of early twentieth-century Cuba, concluding that, while they were more advantaged than other working class laborers of color—due to their status as British subjects and their knowledge of English at a time of dramatic U.S. economic expansion—they nonetheless had to confront the harsh realities of racism and xenophobia. U.S. economic expansion included the development of the Guantánamo Naval Base where many immigrants and their Cuban-born children were employed. Queeley therefore explores diaspora and transnationalism in this local context.
Sonja Stephenson Watson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049861
- eISBN:
- 9780813050331
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049861.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This chapter revisits the theme of national identity explored in previous chapters and examines the role of black movements in the aid of Afro-Panamanian consolidation. Specifically, it considers the ...
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This chapter revisits the theme of national identity explored in previous chapters and examines the role of black movements in the aid of Afro-Panamanian consolidation. Specifically, it considers the writings and political activism of Panamanian West Indian writers who address the issue of Afro-Panamanian identity from disparate geographical spaces--the United States and Panama. The subjects of this chapter, Melva Lowe de Goodin (Panama), Gerardo Maloney (Panama), Carlos Wilson (United States), and Carlos Russell (United States), represent third-generation Panamanian West Indians and their works illustrate the complexities of being both West Indian and Panamanian from the 1970s to the present. Lowe de Goodin incorporates West Indian consciousness through history and ethnic memory vis-à-vis the metaphor of the Colón Man, a symbol of Caribbean migration and displacement. Meanwhile Wilson's poetry problematizes his racial identity as a black Panamanian/Latin American, West Indian, and North American exhibiting a triple-consciousness. Writing from inside the Panamanian nation-state, Maloney's works often privilege Afro-Panama over his Anglophone Caribbean heritage. By contrast, his contemporary Russell promotes a Caribbean heritage through a consciously racialized discourse. Recent works by both Maloney and Russell, however, convey a Caribbean consciousness which further complicates yet enriches our understanding of blackness in Panama.Less
This chapter revisits the theme of national identity explored in previous chapters and examines the role of black movements in the aid of Afro-Panamanian consolidation. Specifically, it considers the writings and political activism of Panamanian West Indian writers who address the issue of Afro-Panamanian identity from disparate geographical spaces--the United States and Panama. The subjects of this chapter, Melva Lowe de Goodin (Panama), Gerardo Maloney (Panama), Carlos Wilson (United States), and Carlos Russell (United States), represent third-generation Panamanian West Indians and their works illustrate the complexities of being both West Indian and Panamanian from the 1970s to the present. Lowe de Goodin incorporates West Indian consciousness through history and ethnic memory vis-à-vis the metaphor of the Colón Man, a symbol of Caribbean migration and displacement. Meanwhile Wilson's poetry problematizes his racial identity as a black Panamanian/Latin American, West Indian, and North American exhibiting a triple-consciousness. Writing from inside the Panamanian nation-state, Maloney's works often privilege Afro-Panama over his Anglophone Caribbean heritage. By contrast, his contemporary Russell promotes a Caribbean heritage through a consciously racialized discourse. Recent works by both Maloney and Russell, however, convey a Caribbean consciousness which further complicates yet enriches our understanding of blackness in Panama.
William A. Green
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202783
- eISBN:
- 9780191675515
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202783.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter discusses West Indian society, which was characterized by rigid segmentation and division. Built on the principles of inequality and subordination, the West Indies was dominated by the ...
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This chapter discusses West Indian society, which was characterized by rigid segmentation and division. Built on the principles of inequality and subordination, the West Indies was dominated by the whites: the dominant culture and race that served as a yardstick of social status. As the dominant race, Europeans mostly control and overpowered all aspects of society. And unlike the blacks, the Europeans preserved most of their cultural and social institutions. Africans, on the other hand, were forced into assimilation and creolization, to adopt the dominant culture and allow drastic changes to their original culture to accommodate the demands of the dominant race. While creolization did occur in both the Africans and Europeans, the West Indies was never under a uniform creolization. While changes were apparent in the culture of the slaves due to their bondage, and the free coloured people due to concubinage and their efforts to identify with the whites, the Europeans were not subject to drastic culture changes as they considered the modifications in their living habits as temporary adjustments to an alien climate and a slave economy. Despite the varying degrees of creolization among Africans and Europeans, the several segments of West Indian society did not cohere. This was because the principles of inequality and subordination created division instead of cohesion, not to mention the impermanence, insecurity and exploitation that was prevalent in the colonies.Less
This chapter discusses West Indian society, which was characterized by rigid segmentation and division. Built on the principles of inequality and subordination, the West Indies was dominated by the whites: the dominant culture and race that served as a yardstick of social status. As the dominant race, Europeans mostly control and overpowered all aspects of society. And unlike the blacks, the Europeans preserved most of their cultural and social institutions. Africans, on the other hand, were forced into assimilation and creolization, to adopt the dominant culture and allow drastic changes to their original culture to accommodate the demands of the dominant race. While creolization did occur in both the Africans and Europeans, the West Indies was never under a uniform creolization. While changes were apparent in the culture of the slaves due to their bondage, and the free coloured people due to concubinage and their efforts to identify with the whites, the Europeans were not subject to drastic culture changes as they considered the modifications in their living habits as temporary adjustments to an alien climate and a slave economy. Despite the varying degrees of creolization among Africans and Europeans, the several segments of West Indian society did not cohere. This was because the principles of inequality and subordination created division instead of cohesion, not to mention the impermanence, insecurity and exploitation that was prevalent in the colonies.
Oneka LaBennett
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814752470
- eISBN:
- 9780814765289
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814752470.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This introductory chapter maps out the variegated context that informs the youth culture of Black youth, especially that of adolescent West Indian girls. Racialized stereotypes and constructions of ...
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This introductory chapter maps out the variegated context that informs the youth culture of Black youth, especially that of adolescent West Indian girls. Racialized stereotypes and constructions of these youths' lives remain pervasive in mainstream media; in response, they have found ways to claim public spaces and perform authenticity in defiance of what mainstream culture has perceived as “real.” As they navigate these boundaries, youth of color are often misunderstood, viewed as criminals, or rendered invisible. Their presence in New York's public spaces is regarded alternatively as a nuisance and as an entertaining oddity. They are avoided, pitied, or exoticized. They are either exploited pawns or crafty entrepreneurs. But these urban minority youth are also negotiating the spheres of labor, leisure, and consumption to turn a profit and to demand the attention of a public that rarely engages with them.Less
This introductory chapter maps out the variegated context that informs the youth culture of Black youth, especially that of adolescent West Indian girls. Racialized stereotypes and constructions of these youths' lives remain pervasive in mainstream media; in response, they have found ways to claim public spaces and perform authenticity in defiance of what mainstream culture has perceived as “real.” As they navigate these boundaries, youth of color are often misunderstood, viewed as criminals, or rendered invisible. Their presence in New York's public spaces is regarded alternatively as a nuisance and as an entertaining oddity. They are avoided, pitied, or exoticized. They are either exploited pawns or crafty entrepreneurs. But these urban minority youth are also negotiating the spheres of labor, leisure, and consumption to turn a profit and to demand the attention of a public that rarely engages with them.
Oneka LaBennett
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814752470
- eISBN:
- 9780814765289
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814752470.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter presents an ethnographic mapping of the youngsters' journeys within and beyond the confines of the Brooklyn Children's Museum (BCM), placing West Indian immigrant youth within the racial ...
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This chapter presents an ethnographic mapping of the youngsters' journeys within and beyond the confines of the Brooklyn Children's Museum (BCM), placing West Indian immigrant youth within the racial and gender-based obstacles Black teens must traverse as they navigate New York City. Outings to a Barnes and Noble bookstore, a McDonald's restaurant, and a movie theater, along with the teens' uses of cellular phones, emerge as conflict-ridden sites. The chapter addresses the prominent role of consumer culture in shaping the lives of these urban dwellers and interprets the youths' extracurricular activities in and around BCM as spatializing forces that help to construct transnational racial and gender identities.Less
This chapter presents an ethnographic mapping of the youngsters' journeys within and beyond the confines of the Brooklyn Children's Museum (BCM), placing West Indian immigrant youth within the racial and gender-based obstacles Black teens must traverse as they navigate New York City. Outings to a Barnes and Noble bookstore, a McDonald's restaurant, and a movie theater, along with the teens' uses of cellular phones, emerge as conflict-ridden sites. The chapter addresses the prominent role of consumer culture in shaping the lives of these urban dwellers and interprets the youths' extracurricular activities in and around BCM as spatializing forces that help to construct transnational racial and gender identities.
Anne Spry Rush
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588558
- eISBN:
- 9780191728990
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588558.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Cultural History
This concluding chapter considers how West Indian understandings of Britishness, as well as the institutional and migratory pathways through which they were reinforced, may have influenced both ...
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This concluding chapter considers how West Indian understandings of Britishness, as well as the institutional and migratory pathways through which they were reinforced, may have influenced both Britain and the Caribbean in the post-colonial era. It suggests that continuing bonds between Caribbean peoples and native Britons had an important and complex impact on the newly constituted independent societies in the Caribbean as well as on post-war domestic British culture. It comments on related literature on colonial relationships to Britishness, particularly that dealing with the concept of respectability as developed by colonials of color in other parts the British World. It encourages further explorations of British identity amongst these peoples, as well as amongst white West Indians and the working classes in the context of British royalty, generational and ethnic factors, the English language, and religion.Less
This concluding chapter considers how West Indian understandings of Britishness, as well as the institutional and migratory pathways through which they were reinforced, may have influenced both Britain and the Caribbean in the post-colonial era. It suggests that continuing bonds between Caribbean peoples and native Britons had an important and complex impact on the newly constituted independent societies in the Caribbean as well as on post-war domestic British culture. It comments on related literature on colonial relationships to Britishness, particularly that dealing with the concept of respectability as developed by colonials of color in other parts the British World. It encourages further explorations of British identity amongst these peoples, as well as amongst white West Indians and the working classes in the context of British royalty, generational and ethnic factors, the English language, and religion.
William A. Green
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202783
- eISBN:
- 9780191675515
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202783.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
Great Britain owned 14 sugar colonies in tropical America. Six of them were originally settled by Englishmen and the remaining eight were secured by conquest. In the 11 colonies, a representative or ...
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Great Britain owned 14 sugar colonies in tropical America. Six of them were originally settled by Englishmen and the remaining eight were secured by conquest. In the 11 colonies, a representative or assembly government, established during the reign of Charles II, prevailed. Three of the conquered colonies were governed under an authoritarian rule that reserved all legislative initiative and efforts to the Crown or to its corresponding representative in the colony. This chapter discusses the institutions of West Indian law and government. Forged during the slavery era, these colonies were dominated and controlled by a European élite whose main interests dominated their governance. While these colonies were subject to the rule of the Crown, the generations of neglect by the British government strengthened the grip of the planter oligarchs, allowing them to usurp and further their executive power. These strengthened élites initiated legislations, controlled colonial revenues, dominated the courts, and defied the Crown's representatives without reservations. Corruption and its endless opportunities proliferated as oligarchs were bounded by the same social, political, economic, and personal interests.Less
Great Britain owned 14 sugar colonies in tropical America. Six of them were originally settled by Englishmen and the remaining eight were secured by conquest. In the 11 colonies, a representative or assembly government, established during the reign of Charles II, prevailed. Three of the conquered colonies were governed under an authoritarian rule that reserved all legislative initiative and efforts to the Crown or to its corresponding representative in the colony. This chapter discusses the institutions of West Indian law and government. Forged during the slavery era, these colonies were dominated and controlled by a European élite whose main interests dominated their governance. While these colonies were subject to the rule of the Crown, the generations of neglect by the British government strengthened the grip of the planter oligarchs, allowing them to usurp and further their executive power. These strengthened élites initiated legislations, controlled colonial revenues, dominated the courts, and defied the Crown's representatives without reservations. Corruption and its endless opportunities proliferated as oligarchs were bounded by the same social, political, economic, and personal interests.
William A. Green
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202783
- eISBN:
- 9780191675515
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202783.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter discusses the abolition of apprenticeship and the introduction of measures that would limit the authority of colonial oligarchs and initiate the uprooting of slavery codes. Faced by the ...
More
This chapter discusses the abolition of apprenticeship and the introduction of measures that would limit the authority of colonial oligarchs and initiate the uprooting of slavery codes. Faced by the crisis and humiliation due to the early abolishment of the apprenticeship system, including the failure of the government to overhaul the legal machinery of the colonies, the government exasperatedly rushed in, forming new laws and new constitutions that would allow the slaves freedom. Upon the abolition of the apprenticeship, the West Indian legislatures dismantled the slavery codes and introduced new legislation for every aspect of colonial life. The acts of vagrancy and contract laws by the colonial oligarchs were given boundaries and restraints, the freedmen were allowed to purchase lands, free villages emerged, and the liberty of the freedmen was finally given priority.Less
This chapter discusses the abolition of apprenticeship and the introduction of measures that would limit the authority of colonial oligarchs and initiate the uprooting of slavery codes. Faced by the crisis and humiliation due to the early abolishment of the apprenticeship system, including the failure of the government to overhaul the legal machinery of the colonies, the government exasperatedly rushed in, forming new laws and new constitutions that would allow the slaves freedom. Upon the abolition of the apprenticeship, the West Indian legislatures dismantled the slavery codes and introduced new legislation for every aspect of colonial life. The acts of vagrancy and contract laws by the colonial oligarchs were given boundaries and restraints, the freedmen were allowed to purchase lands, free villages emerged, and the liberty of the freedmen was finally given priority.
