Intergenerational differences on anti-blackness in the Indo-Caribbean community in New York City

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examines how anti-Black ideologies emerging from the Caribbean impact negotiations of race amongst Indo-Caribbeans in New York City by using thirty qualitative interviews with first-generation and second-generation Indo-Guyanese and Indo-Trinidadians. First, it highlights that global systems of anti-Blackness influence how Indo-Caribbeans experienced racialized violence in their home countries and navigate their racial identities in the US. It then reveals how the second generation negotiates anti-Blackness in divergent ways. Some second-generation Indo-Caribbeans uphold their families’ anti-Black sentiments by grappling with dating norms and maintaining racialized attitudes framed under colour-evasive racism. However, those in the second generation who have significant interactions in white spaces negotiate their attitudes about racism and Black people by seeking solidarity. Overall, this study finds that anti-Blackness can be rooted in legacies of white supremacy within immigrants’ home countries, but these sentiments can shift among the second generation as they navigate their processes of racialization.