What role does ‘race’ play when it comes to a sense of identity for Caribbean peoples?

p Title : The Role of `Race ' in Caribbean Sense of Identity

Introduction

The geographical entity called the Caribbean is roughly made up of islands within the Caribbean Sea and the coastal lands of Central and South America . The existence of this part of the world was brought to the attention of Europe , with the landing of ships of Christopher Columbus and his crew on parts of Cuba and Hispaniola late in 1492 AD The Caribbean is made up of many islands that lie within the tropical and subtropical climatic zones of Central

America . The unique geographical location of these exotic islands as a crossroad of the Americas , the outposts of Europe and the destination of cheap labor from Africa and Asia , has made them open to all influences

The history of migration into the Caribbean Islands threw together diverse races and cultures of peoples from all the continents of the world . The net result is the creation of such a unique racial mix that is hard to find anywhere else in the world and which has resulted in an identity problem for the Caribbean people . In the words of Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie , Campus Principal of the University of West Indies St . Augustine : Caribbean people have an identity problem . The question of identity remains unresolved . We have a history , we are located in a place , and we have built relationships , a culture is evolving but we do have identity problems ' Part of these problems is the role which racial consciousness plays in the sense of identity of Caribbeans . The Caribbean sense of identity through racial consciousness is partly located in their history-how they came to be where they are today

Historical Background

The various racial groups which today populate the Caribbean Islands are derived from : Indigenous people-Tainos , Africans , Europeans and Asiatic Indians . There are three identifiable migratory routes into the islands of the Caribbean . From Europe came the explorers led by Christopher Columbus , who quickly transmuted into conquistadores and colonists and began the exploitation of mineral and agricultural resources of the new lands , using the indigenous peoples they met on the islands as slave labor . Then in came the Africans , who were forcefully brought in as slaves from their homelands in West Africa to replace the Tainos , who by mid sixteenth century AD had been practically wiped out by the rapacious and rampaging Europeans . Much later came in the Asiatic Indians who arrived as indentured laborers

Since the white European men arrived without their women , they were forced by circumstances to copulate first with the indigenous Tainos , and later with their female African slaves . This mix created a unique racial group called the `Mulatto . The male mulatto offspring of the white European men became their heirs . They inherited all the property of their white fathers , including their black slaves . This was the beginning of the schism between black Africans and their mulatto half brothers . The social setup in most of the Caribbean colonies had the white colonists at the top of the...