RACE AND ethnicity, we read in The Construction and Representation of Race and Ethnicity in the Caribbean and the World, constitute a major focus for identification among Caribbean peoples. Basic structures going back to the time of slavery and even beyond remain tenacious throughout the Caribbean, even though a number of changes can be observed.
The author of this scholarly publication is Mervyn C. Alleyne. Race, he argues, is not a genetic attribute but rather the socialised perception of
biological phenotypical
characteristics.
Alleyne, who is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University of the West Indies and Visiting Professor, College of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, says in the introduction to his book that culture and racial identity are the foundation of ethnicity. Culture, he says, includes religion, language, music, dress, foods, customs, names and naming. These are the most tangible and salient, and together with race form the main focus of ethnic identity.
CULTURE AND ETHNICITY
However, Professor Alleyne feels that whereas culture is transmitted and ascribed,
ethnicity is engendered through recognition of sameness and of common interests which, particularly in situations of competitiveness for scarce resources, leads to common actions to
further common interests.
He says that while race may be a very important factor in the constitution of ethnicity the two categories do not necessarily coincide.
We read in the Introduction on Page 15: "In Jamaica, although class may be at present the dominant feature, there is still a large part of social relations and special behaviour that is determined by race and ethnicity, however nebulous these concepts may be at the contemporary period, in the opinion of some scholars.
"Race in Jamaica is difficult to define, and is constantly being redefined in the context of changing class and ideological relationships, and ethnicity is in the process of being reconstructed." With the development of nationhood and the need to define "Jamaican-ness", ethnicity is expanding from class and race levels to national levels.
The author says the Caribbean shows different processes of racial and ethnic construction and representation, albeit within a very common framework.
ABSORBING
The book is an absorbing study of race and ethnicity and examines three modalities in some detail: Jamaica, Martinique and Puerto Rico. These countries represent the three major colonial powers the English, French and Spanish that competed for hegemony in the Caribbean. The three modalities, however, do not totally represent the Caribbean as the author notes that societies such as Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname and Cayenne "have become extremely complex in the post-emancipation period."
The author brings out many thought-provoking points in
his book. In Chapter 4, for example, he notes that Africa is the home of "blackness", the antithesis of "whiteness" and culturally speaking, African culture is widely seen as being antithetical to European culture. The association of blackness with virility has persisted up to today and there is still the perception that white females who come to the Caribbean in search of sexual experiences choose partners who are particularly black.
CHAPTER SIX
In Chapter 6 he notes that the Spanish came early to Puerto Rico and established their first real colony in the Americas there. Puerto Rico is distinguished in that its history is marked by the relatively slow numerical rise of the African population and by the relative numerical strength of the white and mulatto population.
In fact, Africa has always been a controversial factor in the construction of Puerto Rican identity, he says.
Martinique, the author says, holds a position intermediate between Puerto Rico and Jamaica in terms of its racial and ethnic history and its current situation. There are some remarkable similarities between Martinique and Puerto Rico in that Africa has been largely rejected as a focus for ethnicity and black has been redefined; it has been split into a colour and a race/ethnicity.
ASSERTIVE PROJECTION
"It is in Martinique that we find the most assertive projection of the mixed blood as the national ethnic/racial prototype. For the Martinican, to recognise oneself as black is to exclude oneself from what is seen as the positive values and achievements of the world, and of France in particular and to place oneself in the company of Haitians, Jamaicans and African Americans."
The author states that among the world's cultures and ethnicities, Africa is probably the most salient symbol or pole of ethnic opposition to France.
The economy of Martinique is tied to that of France and today Martinicans enjoy, perhaps, the highest standard of living in the Caribbean.
Professor Alleyne says Jamaica represents the anglophone Caribbean in the study. Although the island was under Spanish rule for a little more than 150 years, it is the British influence that dominates the Jamaican history and provides the European input in the race and ethnicity picture.
Jamaica and Haiti lie on the African/black pole of the Caribbean race/ethnicity
continuum. White is receding and is virtually non-existent as a local category. In Jamaica "brown" signifying the
"highest" shade of mulatto, has become the more active pole of opposition and antithesis to black.
CONCLUSION
Alleyne notes in the conclusion to the book that "The Caribbean was the location in the world which saw the birth of the modern period of human socioeconomic history. It may be claimed that the area saw the first seeds of globalisation planted. It also heralded one of the most important economic spin-offs of globalisation."
He notes, however, that the question of low racial confidence among blacks remains the most burning socio-psychological problem in the Caribbean, North America and other parts of the world where blacks suffered the colonial domination of Europe. Further, economic deprivation will continue to nourish racial/ethnic assertion and polarisation.
